Kidnapped (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Kidnapped is an American
television drama series from Sony Pictures Television
which aired on NBC
from September 20, 2006, to August 11, 2007. The series returned on Universal HD
in 2008.
The core cast included ex-FBI operative Knapp (Jeremy Sisto
) offering privately contracted services to retrieve kidnapping victims, his technologically adept coordinator and assistant Turner (Carmen Ejogo
) and FBI Agent Latimer King (Delroy Lindo
).
Timothy Hutton
and Dana Delany
co-star as an affluent New York couple whose teenage son Leopold (Will Denton
) is abducted. Other characters include Gutman (Mädchen Amick
) and "The Accountant" (James Urbaniak
), Leopold's bodyguard (and King's brother-in-law) Virgil Hayes (Mykelti Williamson
), and FBI agents played by Linus Roache
and Michael Mosley
.
for the premiere were 6.0, with total viewers of 7.5 million, and adults 2.8 in the 18-49 demographic. The second episode scored a 2.1 in the 18-49 demographic, with a total of 6.3 million viewers.
presentations. This placed Kidnapped in a timeslot against the popular series House
on Fox. Because of this and similar problems with other shows, in an unusual move on May 25, 2006, NBC announced significant changes to its fall schedule, moving Kidnapped to a Wednesday 10:00 pm ET timeslot.
NBC
and Netflix
then announced, two months before the start of the 2006 fall season, that the pilot episodes of Kidnapped and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
(another new series) would be made available to Netflix subscribers on a specially issued preview DVD. The pilot for Kidnapped was also made available online at MSN
.
Premiering on September 20, 2006, Kidnapped started airing on NBC on Wednesday nights. After the third episode performed poorly in the ratings, NBC announced that the show would be completed and aired within the 13 episodes of the original production order, instead of the usual 22 of a full TV season, and that the show would be rescheduled to Saturdays at 9 pm starting October 21.
After airing the fifth episode, NBC pulled the show from their schedule. NBC then announced that the remaining eight episodes would be shown online at the NBC website until completion of the story, with a new episode posted each Friday. The series finale was posted online on December 22, 2006, and the series was not renewed by NBC. The entire series was released on DVD on April 24, 2007.
On June 24, 2007, NBC began to air the eight remaining unaired episodes of the series on overnight Sunday night/Monday mornings as part of the network's NBC All Night lineup after Meet the Press
, replacing the usual late night airing of Best of Dateline NBC
at that time. This depended on local affiliates, however, as some stations only carry portions of the lineup, and some do not air NBC All Night at all.
The series returned on Universal HD
in 2008. As of April 2009, the entire series is available for streaming for free in the U.S. on Sony-owned Crackle
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television drama series from Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
which aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
from September 20, 2006, to August 11, 2007. The series returned on Universal HD
Universal HD
Universal HD is an HDTV cable television network owned by NBCUniversal. The channel was known as Bravo HD+ until December 1, 2004. The network exclusively broadcasts in high definition 1080i...
in 2008.
Overview
The series premise was to feature a new kidnapping each season, with a core continuing cast who investigated the kidnappings, and additional cast members who changed each season, consisting of the kidnappers and the people affected. The show told the story from the discrete points of view of the victim, the parents, the investigators, and the kidnappers. However, this idea of a semi-rotating cast became moot after the show's cancellation.The core cast included ex-FBI operative Knapp (Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...
) offering privately contracted services to retrieve kidnapping victims, his technologically adept coordinator and assistant Turner (Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo is a British actress, currently based in the United States.-Early life:Born and raised in London, Ejogo is the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Ejogo née Douglas. Her father is a Nigerian entrepreneur and her mother a Scottish tour guide. During her childhood, Ejogo...
) and FBI Agent Latimer King (Delroy Lindo
Delroy Lindo
Delroy George Lindo is an English actor and theatre director. Lindo has been nominated for the Tony and Screen Actors Guild awards and has won a Satellite Award...
).
Timothy Hutton
Timothy Hutton
Timothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
and Dana Delany
Dana Delany
Dana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...
co-star as an affluent New York couple whose teenage son Leopold (Will Denton
Will Denton
Will Denton is an American film and television actor.Best known for playing the role of "Leopold Cain" in the television series Kidnapped , his credits also include the films Robots , Palindromes , and Kinsey .Denton currently lives in Brookfield, Connecticut and is a member of the class of 2012...
) is abducted. Other characters include Gutman (Mädchen Amick
Mädchen Amick
Mädchen Amick is an American actress best known for playing Shelly Johnson on the cult television series Twin Peaks and its 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.-Early life:...
) and "The Accountant" (James Urbaniak
James Urbaniak
James Christian Urbaniak is an American actor. Urbaniak was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife Julie and their twins, son Severn Jerzy and daughter Esme Maeve....
), Leopold's bodyguard (and King's brother-in-law) Virgil Hayes (Mykelti Williamson
Mykelti Williamson
Michael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
), and FBI agents played by Linus Roache
Linus Roache
Linus William Roache is an English actor.-Early life:Roache was born in Manchester, the son of Coronation Street actor William Roache and actress Anna Cropper. Roache was educated at Bishop Luffa Church of England School in Chichester, West Sussex and at the independent Rydal School in Colwyn Bay,...
and Michael Mosley
Michael Mosley
Michael Mosley is an American television and film actor, best known for playing Drew in the revamped version and final season of the American medical comedy Scrubs.-Early life:...
.
Ratings
Nielsen ratingsNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
for the premiere were 6.0, with total viewers of 7.5 million, and adults 2.8 in the 18-49 demographic. The second episode scored a 2.1 in the 18-49 demographic, with a total of 6.3 million viewers.
Scheduling
Kidnapped was originally scheduled to air on Tuesdays at 9:00 pm ET in the U.S., as announced in a presentation made by NBC in advance of the normal upfrontUpfront
In the North American television industry, an upfront is a meeting hosted at the start of important advertising sales periods by television network executives, attended by the press and major advertisers...
presentations. This placed Kidnapped in a timeslot against the popular series House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
on Fox. Because of this and similar problems with other shows, in an unusual move on May 25, 2006, NBC announced significant changes to its fall schedule, moving Kidnapped to a Wednesday 10:00 pm ET timeslot.
NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
then announced, two months before the start of the 2006 fall season, that the pilot episodes of Kidnapped and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was an American dramedy television series created and written by Aaron Sorkin. It ran for 22 episodes.The series takes place behind the scenes of a live sketch comedy show on the fictional television network NBS , whose format is similar to that of NBC's...
(another new series) would be made available to Netflix subscribers on a specially issued preview DVD. The pilot for Kidnapped was also made available online at MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
.
Premiering on September 20, 2006, Kidnapped started airing on NBC on Wednesday nights. After the third episode performed poorly in the ratings, NBC announced that the show would be completed and aired within the 13 episodes of the original production order, instead of the usual 22 of a full TV season, and that the show would be rescheduled to Saturdays at 9 pm starting October 21.
After airing the fifth episode, NBC pulled the show from their schedule. NBC then announced that the remaining eight episodes would be shown online at the NBC website until completion of the story, with a new episode posted each Friday. The series finale was posted online on December 22, 2006, and the series was not renewed by NBC. The entire series was released on DVD on April 24, 2007.
On June 24, 2007, NBC began to air the eight remaining unaired episodes of the series on overnight Sunday night/Monday mornings as part of the network's NBC All Night lineup after Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
, replacing the usual late night airing of Best of Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC
Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for...
at that time. This depended on local affiliates, however, as some stations only carry portions of the lineup, and some do not air NBC All Night at all.
The series returned on Universal HD
Universal HD
Universal HD is an HDTV cable television network owned by NBCUniversal. The channel was known as Bravo HD+ until December 1, 2004. The network exclusively broadcasts in high definition 1080i...
in 2008. As of April 2009, the entire series is available for streaming for free in the U.S. on Sony-owned Crackle
Crackle
Crackle is a digital network and studio, featuring commercially supported streaming video content in Flash Video format. It is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, and its content consists primarily of Sony's library of films and television shows...
.
Main cast
- Timothy HuttonTimothy HuttonTimothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
as Conrad Cain - Dana DelanyDana DelanyDana Welles Delany is an American film, stage, and television actress, producer, host and health activist.After various roles in the early career, Delany garnered her first leading role in 1987 in the short-lived NBC sitcom Sweet Surrender and achieved wider fame in 1988–1991 as Colleen McMurphy...
as Ellie Rand Cain - Will DentonWill DentonWill Denton is an American film and television actor.Best known for playing the role of "Leopold Cain" in the television series Kidnapped , his credits also include the films Robots , Palindromes , and Kinsey .Denton currently lives in Brookfield, Connecticut and is a member of the class of 2012...
as Leopold Cain - Jeremy SistoJeremy SistoJeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...
as Lucian Knapp - Carmen EjogoCarmen EjogoCarmen Elizabeth Ejogo is a British actress, currently based in the United States.-Early life:Born and raised in London, Ejogo is the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Ejogo née Douglas. Her father is a Nigerian entrepreneur and her mother a Scottish tour guide. During her childhood, Ejogo...
as Turner - Delroy LindoDelroy LindoDelroy George Lindo is an English actor and theatre director. Lindo has been nominated for the Tony and Screen Actors Guild awards and has won a Satellite Award...
as Latimer King - Mykelti WilliamsonMykelti WilliamsonMichael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
as Virgil Hayes - Linus RoacheLinus RoacheLinus William Roache is an English actor.-Early life:Roache was born in Manchester, the son of Coronation Street actor William Roache and actress Anna Cropper. Roache was educated at Bishop Luffa Church of England School in Chichester, West Sussex and at the independent Rydal School in Colwyn Bay,...
as Andrew "Andy" Archer
Supporting cast
- Michael MosleyMichael MosleyMichael Mosley is an American television and film actor, best known for playing Drew in the revamped version and final season of the American medical comedy Scrubs.-Early life:...
as FBI Agent Atkins - Lydia JordanLydia JordanLydia Grace Jordan is an American actress best known for her role as Alice in the 2008 film Doubt.-Filmography:-External links:* in Child Starlets...
as Alice Cain - Olivia Thirlby as Aubrey Cain
- James UrbaniakJames UrbaniakJames Christian Urbaniak is an American actor. Urbaniak was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife Julie and their twins, son Severn Jerzy and daughter Esme Maeve....
as The Accountant - Anthony RappAnthony RappAnthony Deane Rapp is an American stage and film actor and singer best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in the Broadway production of Rent in 1996 and later for reprising the role in the film version and the Broadway Tour of Rent in 2009...
as "Larry" Kellogg - Mädchen AmickMädchen AmickMädchen Amick is an American actress best known for playing Shelly Johnson on the cult television series Twin Peaks and its 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.-Early life:...
as Gutman - Giancarlo EspositoGiancarlo EspositoGiancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
as FBI Agent Vance - Ricky JayRicky JayRichard Jay Potash , better known by the stage name Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. He is a sleight-of-hand expert and is notable for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter.-Life and career:...
as Roger Prince - Tyler PierceTyler PierceTyler Pierce is an American actor. Pierce has acted in plays on and off Broadway, including a starring role in the play Fat Pig written by Neil LaBute. He has also acted abroad in Dublin, Ireland and England. Pierce has appeared in independent films and soap operas...
as ND Agent 1 - Otto SanchezOtto SanchezOtto Sanchez is an American actor best known for playing Carmen Guerra in the HBO prison drama Oz. He also played the role of Otto in the short-lived drama Kidnapped. He appeared as a supporting character in Bad Boys 2. He played the lead role of Paul in the film Push which won awards at The Long...
as Otto - Terry KinneyTerry KinneyTerry Kinney is an American actor and theatre director, and is a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry.-Early life:...
as James Sullivan
Episodes
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