TV Shows Like Designated Survivor
If you like Designated Survivor, here are 11 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
ABC · Drama · Designated Survivor is cancelled
Designated Survivor takes an unusual premise and pushes it into its logical extremes: what happens to an ordinary person thrust into the highest office in the country with no preparation and enemies everywhere? Tom Kirkman enters the Oval Office as a blank slate, a man without the political calculus that usually prepares someone for power, and that disorientation becomes the show's central tension. He has to govern in real time while figuring out who orchestrated the attack that killed almost everyone ahead of him, all while navigating a cabinet full of people who may or may not be trying to help him.
The best shows like Designated Survivor
1. Homeland
Homeland has the same urgent, unfolding conspiracy at its heart that drives Designated Survivor's first season, with a brilliant protagonist trying to stop a catastrophic threat. The difference is the psychological weight: Carrie's bipolar disorder makes her brilliant and unstable at once, adding a personal layer of chaos to go with the external threats she's hunting.
Stream on Netflix, Hulu
Ended0%
2. Foundation
Foundation shares Designated Survivor's interest in people trying to hold vast systems together against impossible odds, though it trades the immediate crisis of a nation for the slow-burn problem of saving civilization itself. Both shows are about competent people making difficult choices while history moves around them, just on very different timescales.
Stream on Apple TV, Apple TV Amazon Channel
Likely Renewed97%
3. The Day of the Jackal
This show swaps the political power struggle for a taut chase across Europe between an assassin and an intelligence officer, but it has the same cat-and-mouse energy and stakes. If you liked watching Tom Kirkman outmaneuver his enemies while trying to stay one step ahead, you'll find that same tension here, just compressed into a more direct hunter-and-hunted dynamic.
Likely Renewed90%
4. Paradise
Paradise mirrors Designated Survivor's structure of a shocking crime drawing an investigation into a community of powerful people, except the scope is smaller and more intimate. Like Designated Survivor, the mystery keeps pulling back layers to reveal secrets and hidden motives among the people supposedly in charge.
Stream on Hulu
Likely Renewed72%
5. House of Cards
Where Designated Survivor shows how an unprepared outsider handles the presidency, House of Cards is the dark mirror: a ruthless politician clawing his way to the top through manipulation and betrayal. Fans of White House intrigue and political maneuvering will find the same high-stakes decision-making and moral compromise, just approached from the perspective of someone hungry for power rather than suddenly stuck with it.
Stream on Netflix
Ended0%
More on shows like Designated Survivor
Fans of Designated Survivor tend to want political stakes that feel immediate and personal. They like watching competent people solve problems under pressure, seeing how institutions hold up when stressed, and following conspiracy threads that unfold across seasons. The appeal is partly about how power actually works: the backroom deals, the alliances that matter, the way ambition shapes decision-making. But it's also about a specific kind of vulnerability, watching someone competent but fundamentally out of their depth trying to do the right thing while the ground shifts beneath them.
The five shows here approach that setup from different angles. House of Cards goes the opposite direction, showing us power as something pursued ruthlessly and without restraint. Homeland puts competence under pressure but adds the psychological breakdown as a central element, watching a brilliant person fight their own mind while fighting external threats. The Day of the Jackal isn't about governance at all, but it has that same cat-and-mouse intensity with actual stakes. Foundation is the wildcard, trading immediate political crisis for the longer arc of civilization preservation, but it keeps that sense of people trying to hold systems together against chaos. Paradise takes the investigation structure, a murder in a powerful community that pulls back layers of secrets, though the scope is smaller and more intimate than Designated Survivor's national scale.
More shows like Designated Survivor
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Designated Survivor?
- Homeland is the most popular show similar to Designated Survivor in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Designated Survivor still on the air?
- Of the 11 shows similar to Designated Survivor listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Designated Survivor?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.