'Designated Survivor' Season 3 Renewal News: Kiefer Sutherland Teases Political Drama's Return, Might Lessen Show's Episodes

Designated Survivor Season 2 is still ongoing and Kiefer Sutherland is already hinting on the show's renewal. In fact, the 51-year-old star has high hopes for a Designated Survivor Season 3 and the announcement might be happening soon.

"Do I believe we're going to do a third season? Yes," Kiefer Sutherland told Digital Spy. However, when asked if it is a guarantee that there will be Designated Survivor Season 3, he said a simple "no." The singer-songwriter teased fans that they should wait for May 15 to come as something is happening on the said date. "So we'll see, we'll see," he teased.

Kiefer Sutherland strongly believes Designated Survivor Season 3 is happening, although he admitted nothing is "written in stone" yet. In fact, he assumes the next installment will have 22 episodes again just like the usual. He later explained the show is designated to run with the number of episodes that ABC is said to have a reason for.

However, he is trying to explore the possibility to lessen Designated Survivor Season 3's episodes, that is if ABC will allow him. However, he is not involved in doing that and has no "weight in that kind of decision." In his creative point of view, if the show's story can be told in just eight episodes, then they don't have to make it longer.

Kiefer Sutherland knows it is the creative director's work to dictate how long Designated Survivor Season 3 will run as opposed to the usual 22 episodes. The 24 star believes television today is in an "exciting format," thus there is a lot of great work being done. But, as a result, the networks are facing challenges to keep it up.

He then complained they are still doing the 22 episodes routine compared to other series' that only do eight. Hence, he feels the show's writers are all under pressure. Kiefer Sutherland explained television is now changing as writers learn how to say no.

As they hold the real power in the industry to keep the show going, they are the ones who decide how far their story will go. "That's it. So take it or leave it," he said. He even cited Netflix, Amazon, and HBO as examples that have been following this way. He even considered the said networks are the "dynamic force" that are changing television.