No, Jack Bauer is not going the Jack Ryan route and becoming president himself. But Kiefer Sutherland is headed back to TV and into the White House for a new conspiracy drama called Designated Survivor.
Safe House’s David Guggenheim has written the basic concept, which US network ABC has ordered straight to series. The plot finds Sutherland as a relatively low-ranking member of the American cabinet who is suddenly appointed to the top job when a catastrophic attack at the State Of The Union address offs everyone above him in the presidential line of succession. So, essentially King Ralph with more nuclear codes, then.
Simon Kinberg, who you would think would already have enough to do given his work on the Marvel movies and the Star Wars universe, not to mention all the films and TV shows he is either producing or writing himself, is attached as executive producer for the show, which will likely arrive later next year, unless it becomes one of those limited series that American networks increasingly use to keep their schedules going in summer. And if they don’t have Donald Sutherland show up as a former president named Snow, they are really missing a trick.