Prime Video's Countdown has passed the halfway point of its first season in the 2025 TV schedule, and the action certainly isn't slowing down for Jensen Ackles' Mark Meachum. The show seems to be generating plenty of buzz, and Ackles has certainly proven himself as a leading man who can carry a project for multiple seasons. (See: a decade and a half of Supernatural with Jared Padalecki.) Season 2 has yet to be guaranteed, however, and I recall what creator/showrunner/executive producer Derek Haas shared with CinemaBlend about writing Season 1 and looking ahead to the future.
Haas came to Countdown with plenty of experience on long-running shows as well, as he was the showrunner on NBC's Chicago Fire for more than a decade, and the hard work that he (and Jensen Ackles) put in for stunts in fact reflects some of his comments about Fire often getting snubbed for stunts on the awards circuit. When I spoke with Haas for Countdown during Prime Video's press day, I had to ask: what benefits were there for him to have written all ten episodes of Countdown himself instead of sharing that load? He shared:
