‘Designated Survivor’: Keith Eisner Set As Showrunner, Pending Season 2 Renewal

Former The Good Wife executive producer Keith Eisner has closed a deal to join ABC’s Kiefer Sutherland drama series Designated Survivor as an executive producer and showrunner for Season 2. While not yet renewed, Designated Survivor, from The Mark Gordon Co. and ABC Studios, is fully expected to be picked up.

Eisner will succeed at the helm Jeff Melvoin, who will be staying on as an executive producer. Eisner would be the fourth showrunner on the series, following Amy B. Harris, Jon Harmon Feldman and Melvoin.

Created by David Guggenheim, Designated Survivor has been a strong delayed viewers performer. In Live+7, it is ABC’s most watched scripted series with 11.4 million viewers and the third-highest-rated in 18-49, with a 2.9 rating. Its production is complex, with executive producers Sutherland, who is filming the series in Toronto, and New York-based Guggenheim weighing in on scripts produced by the show’s writers room in Los Angeles.

Eisner worked on CBS’ The Good Wife for five years, rising from a co-executive producer to executive producer. His series credits also include Law & Order, Gilmore Girls and NYPD Blue. Eisner is repped by CAA, the Shuman Company and attorney Michael Gendler.