Where is Kiefer Sutherland? No Designated Survivor at Trump Inauguration

Kiefer Sutherland is out of a job. 

At Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration Jan. 20, an NBC spokesperson pointed out that there is no designated survivor—a person in the cabinet who forgoes attending events in case of a catastrophic tragedy. (The term was popularized in 2016 thanks to the ABC thriller series featuring Sutherland.)

“Today there is no what’s known as the ‘designated survivor,’” a spokesperson explained in an NBC News broadcast Jan. 20 clip shared to X. “People may be familiar with that when it comes to a State of the Union address, where one member of the cabinet, so someone who is sworn the oath, in office, stays out in case of an extraordinary threat to the continuity of government.” 

O’Donnell acknowledged that only members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet had taken the oath at the beginning of Trump’s inauguration, continuing, “We’re told that there is no designated survivor today.”

As for why? The NBC News correspondent noted, “I’m not sure.”