Fall TV Preview: 'Hostages'

Toni Collette and Dylan McDermott team up this fall on Hostages, the riveting, limited-series political thriller from executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer, in which Toni plays a surgeon who holds the life of the president in her hands – literally.

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"It's a character-driven piece, ultimately," says Toni. "It's one of those shows where the ground keeps moving and you think you know what's happening and it just ends up being turned on its head. … The story's constantly evolving."

Collette plays Dr. Ellen Sanders, a premiere surgeon forced to make the most harrowing life-or-death decision imaginable. McDermott plays Duncan Carlisle, a by rogue FBI Agent that takes Sanders' family hostage and orders her to assassinate the president when she operates on him. With her family's life in peril, the choices between right and wrong become even more blurred as her every move has enormous national and personal consequences.

"That's the best part, is that this show's only 15 episodes and so there's no fat on this show and it's going to be streamlined, and we're going for it every episode," says McDermott. "Every kernel of information you get is going to be gold because it's all going to be linked together until we get to the end."

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Also starring Tate Donovan, Billy Brown, James Naughton, Quinn Shephard, Mateus Ward, Rhys Coiro and Sandrine Holt, Hostages premieres Monday, September 23 at 10/9c on CBS.