ABC backs Survivor, Speechless

ABC in the US has ordered more episodes of drama duo Designated Survivor and Speechless, which star Kiefer Sutherland and Minnie Driver respectively.

The Disney-owned network has added nine additional episodes to each show’s first season after they made their debuts this month.

Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment, labelled the series “two of the most critically acclaimed new shows of the fall season.”

Conspiracy thriller Designated Survivor sees Sutherland, who will attend Mipcom in Cannes next month, play a low-level politician who becomes US president after an attack in Washington DC.

It hails from Entertainment One-owned The Mark Gordon Company and ABC Studios. Netflix recently took worldwide rights to the show, excluding North America.

Family comedy Speechless, meanwhile, comes from Twentieth Century Fox Television and ABC Studios. It stars Driver as a mother who fights injustices, both real and imagined, to support her husband and three children, one of whom has special needs.

In related news, ABC is remaking Scandinavian comedy Next Summer, based on the Norwegian show of the same name that airs on TV Norge.

Deadline reports the series will be produced by Sony Pictures Television. Fox in the US previously picked up the show for a remake in 2014 but it never made it to screen.