Is ‘Line of Fire’ Based on a True Story? Jenna Bush Hager’s Role

• Line of Fire premieres Monday, Sept. 21, at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, right after The Voice. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
• It is not a true story. It is fiction, partly inspired by executive producer Jenna Bush Hager‘s experience growing up under Secret Service protection.
• Peter Krause and Hope Davis lead a family in which every member works for a different federal agency.

A family business, federal edition. NBC’s Line of Fire follows the Hollingsworths, a Washington family in which the parents and all three kids carry a badge, and the first case pulls every one of them in: the murder of a colleague that uncovers a conspiracy aimed at one of their own.

Is ‘Line of Fire’ based on a true story?

No. The Hollingsworths and the case are invented. What is real is the point of view. Jenna Bush Hager, the TODAY co-anchor and daughter of former President George W. Bush, is an executive producer, and the show draws on what she saw of the Secret Service from the inside.

She has described it as a show that asks: “When you’re protecting other people, can you also protect the people you love?” Her pitch for the tone: “if Scandal and Six Feet Under kind of had a baby.”

That second reference is a nod to its star. Peter Krause played Nate Fisher on HBO’s Six Feet Under.

What was Jenna Bush Hager’s life with the Secret Service like?

She and her twin sister, Barbara, were 19 when their father took office in 2001, and they had Secret Service details through college and the rest of his two terms. Their grandfather, George H.W. Bush, had been president before that, from 1989 to 1993.

How long that protection lasts is set by federal law.

Under the statute that defines the Secret Service’s protective mission, children of a president are covered while he is in office; after he leaves, the protection continues only for children under 16. The Bush twins were in their late 20s in 2009, so their details ended with the administration.

Who’s in the ‘Line of Fire’ cast?

• Peter Krause as Mike Hollingsworth, a Secret Service agent and the family patriarch.
• Hope Davis as Jane Hollingsworth, a U.S. Marshal.
• Tommy O’Brien as Mike “Micah” Hollingsworth Jr., also Secret Service.
• Kat Cunning as Clare Hollingsworth, an FBI agent.
• Taylor Bloom as Russ Hollingsworth, at the Department of Justice.
• Charlie Barnett also stars, with Sam Waterston guest-starring as former President Thomas Barnes.

The four agencies do different jobs, which is where the family friction comes from. The Secret Service protects presidents, former presidents and their families. The U.S. Marshals hunt fugitives and protect federal judges and witnesses. The FBI investigates federal crimes, and the Justice Department prosecutes them.

Put them at one dinner table and every case has a turf war built in.

Creator and showrunner Josh Safran puts the mix at “40% case of the week, 50% family drama, and 10% mythological.” Krause calls it “a family show with procedural elements.” The first look:

How to watch ‘Line of Fire’

The premiere airs Monday, Sept. 21, at 10 p.m. ET/9 p.m. CT on NBC, and streams on Peacock the next day. It follows the two-hour Season 30 premiere of The Voice; here is how voting works on The Voice this season.

More new TV: the Reacher season Alan Ritchson says was scrapped and whether SNL is new tonight. More from Movies & TV.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: NBC and NBC Insider (premiere date, cast and characters, Jenna Bush Hager’s comments); 18 U.S. Code § 3056 (Secret Service protective mission). TV Insider (Peter Krause, Hope Davis and Josh Safran interviews); The Hollywood Reporter; USA Today. Photos and video: Line of Fire | First Look (NBC).