Designated Survivor
ABC | Netflix | Release Date: September 21, 2016
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
12
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 19, 2016
Season 1 Review: As equal parts action and drama, and giving Kiefer Sutherland one of the best roles of his career, Designated Survivor is the season’s first sure thing. Make that “Designated” sure thing. Read full review
91
Colorado Springs GazetteTerry TerronesSep 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: It grabs your attention within the first few minutes and keeps you fixated on your screen until the last, dramatic scene. The hourlong pilot feels like 30 minutes and will leave you wanting more. Read full review
91
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 16, 2016
Season 1 Review: The pilot is tremendous. It’s tightly plotted, and, despite being about terrorism like “24,” it brings Sutherland out of the shadow of can-do Jack Bauer. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: The first hour’s masterful swings among moments large and small, mind-boggling and utterly familiar, make it easy to believe that Designated Survivor is just getting started as well. Read full review
88
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: With a little humor to lighten the tension, some well-placed quiet moments to keep the show grounded and a fast pace that keeps any seams from showing, Designated arrives as the most satisfying opening hour of any new broadcast drama. Read full review
83
IndieWireBen TraversSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Designated Survivor doesn’t take itself so seriously that audiences are unable to enjoy seeing an unsettled Sutherland don a suit and become the sort of badass POTUS we all know and love. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubJoshua AlstonSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: As a standalone episode of television, Survivor’s pilot is nothing to cartwheel over, but as it lays out the show’s premise, it becomes obvious why network executives would snap it up. It’s destined to become one of fall’s biggest network hits, and all because Sutherland accepted his role as the elder statesman of the small screen action thriller. Read full review
83
Newark Star-LedgerVicki HymanSep 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: Designated Survivor has got a dynamite premise, but the premiere episode flounders when it leaves the White House for the ruins of the Capitol, where FBI agent Hannah Wells (Maggie Q) is spearheading the investigation. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJeff JensenSep 19, 2016
Season 1 Review: Sutherland is incredibly appealing and credible in a change-of-pace role. The supporting players are well cast. Read full review
80
The TelegraphEd PowerJan 3, 2020
Season 3 Review: As political drama Designated Survivor season three has the smoke-streaming-from-its-ears quality of a Donald Trump stump-speech. As bursting-at-the-seams pot-boiler it is magnificent. Read full review
80
Los Angeles Daily NewsRob LowmanSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: It looks like Sutherland has another winner on his hands. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Jen ChaneySep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: It’s smartly made, but it also doesn’t linger terribly long on details, including character development. ... If nothing else, there is something satisfying about seeing Sutherland as our president. Read full review
80
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 19, 2016
Season 1 Review: Designated Survivor pilot has its share of gaps in logic but it’s engrossing, if not entirely believable, and features the best opening scene of fall’s broadcast drama pilots. Read full review
80
VarietySonia SaraiyaSep 13, 2016
Season 1 Review: The pilot does everything it needs to, checking off the necessary boxes for the unwilling American hero-president in efficient, compelling scenes. This show isn’t going to be for everyone, but it comes with one of the highest-quality pilots broadcast is offering this fall, and it’s ABC’s strongest drama. Read full review
75
Reason.comGlenn GarvinSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Designated Survivor has a terrific pilot episode. Yet it could go off the rails at any moment. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Designated Survivor [is] a lot of shows in one, but in the early going at least, they are all ones to watch. Read full review
75
Boston HeraldMark A. PerigardSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Sutherland is impressive as a nice guy exercising his backbone for perhaps the first time in his life. He works hard to get past one of the most iconic roles in television. The idealism is palpable, even if the show seems a bit too idealistic. The supporting cast seems stuck taking predictable positions. Read full review
75
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: Wednesday’s opening episode, the only one made available for review, solidly sets the hook while only partly weaning Sutherland from all those years as Jack Bauer on 24. Read full review
75
Washington PostHank StueverSep 15, 2016
Season 1 Review: One episode into Designated Survivor may not convince these “24” fans that their beloved Kiefer Sutherland is now a deskbound, rookie POTUS. But once you’re over that hump, the show certainly makes a compelling case for its premise. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredIsaac Feldberg Sep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: That B-plot is where Designated Survivor has the potential to adhere most stringently to formula, with Wells chasing down leads and interrogating suspects Bauer-style in order to prevent further chaos, but even that traditional side of the series is deftly introduced. Ideally, it will remain in the background; Sutherland is where the show soars. Read full review
70
The AtlanticDavid SimsSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: The problem is that Kirkman’s unexpected rise to power is just a little too grim to make that outcome worth fully celebrating. ... There’s no question that the political side of Designated Survivor is the more fascinating one, but there’s something clever about a network show combining the day-to-day concerns of The West Wing with the paranoid conspiracies of Homeland. Read full review
70
Philadelphia InquirerEllen GraySep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Sutherland, a thoughtful actor who was limited to a few expressions in 24, gets to show more of his range here, shedding his action-hero persona for something even more reassuring: a grown-up. Read full review
70
Yahoo TVKen TuckerSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Wednesday night’s pilot is more of a palette-cleanser than a full meal: It sets up the situation without having the time to see how everything will be digested. Read full review
70
Vox.comEmily VanDerWerffSep 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Sutherland perfectly captures the dizzying nausea anyone would feel in this situation. ... But there’s every chance the conspiracy stuff takes over, and if there’s one thing about Designated Survivor that gives me pause, it’s that. Read full review
67
NewsdayVerne GaySep 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: Overly familiar story beats and cardboard character cutouts in Wednesday’s opener blunt the return of Jack Bauer 2.0. A hint of genuine promise, however, remains. Read full review
67
HitfixAlan SepinwallSep 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: In a way, all Guggenheim needs to accomplish in the pilot is to put Sutherland behind the desk in the Oval Office, and he does that. But Designated Survivor feels like it could be a whole lot more than that, perhaps if it started trying to do a bit less overall. Read full review
63
New York PostRobert RorkeSep 20, 2016
Season 1 Review: Designated Survivor does a decent job of mapping the confusion felt by Kirkman, his wife and various White House stock figures, but with “Madam Secretary” playing in the same faux political sandbox, the show feels a little too familiar. Read full review
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