How Much of ‘Line of Fire’ Is Inspired by Jenna Bush Hager’s Life in the White House?

Jenna Bush Hager‘s time in the White House helped inspire NBC‘s new series Line of Fire.

The Today host serves as an executive producer on the show alongside creator Joshua Safran and Ben Spector. The show follows a family of law enforcement officials working for the FBI, US Marshals, Secret Service, and the Department of Justice. “After a seemingly cut-and-dry case turns into a deadly conspiracy, they must use the expertise from a lifetime of protecting civilians and politicians to protect one another and bring the killer to justice … even if it means betraying their sworn code,” the show’s description reads.

Peter Krause and Hope Davis star as Mike and Jane Hollingsworth alongside Kat Cunning, Tommy O’Brien, and Taylor Bloom as their three children.

“It’s been really fun, because it’s not very often where you are writing about a first daughter in the White House and one text away is your producer who is a first daughter who lived in the White House,” Safran said of Bush Hager in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on Tuesday, September 8.

He added, “We also have a Secret Service consultant who’s incredible, who was actually on young Barbara [Bush]‘s detail and worked in the Obama and Clinton regimes. And we have a U.S. Marshall consultant, and an FBI consultant. But we also have Jenna, who is like the ultimate consultant.”

Scott Gries/NBC

Bush Hager and her twin sister, Barbara, are the children of former President George W. Bush and the grandchildren of the late former President George H.W. Bush. According to Safran, Bush Hager was clear about how much of her personal life she wanted to influence the show’s plot.

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“I love that, initially, when we first talked about this, she was sort of like, ‘Well, I don’t want this to reflect on what my lived experience was,’ because we don’t want anyone to think that this is a show about what Jenna lived through,” he explained.

Part of the show’s story involves the affair between the daughter of the president and the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her. “The second she heard the pitch, she was like, ‘Ooh, no, I like that,’” Safran recalled.

Bush Hager has been open about her experiences as the president’s daughter on TV over the years. During a March appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Bush Hager said of the show, “It’s actually based on protective units, but some of my experience with Secret Service, who now that I’m a full-grown adult realize they sacrificed a lot to hang out with my family and me. And it’s, I think, a tribute to them, but it’s a mystery, and it’s fun.”

She went on to note, “And I never hooked up with my Secret Service men,” which Kelly Clarkson described as a “missed opportunity.” Bush Hager joked that she would write a book titled “I Never Hooked Up With My Secret Service Men and Other Regrets by Jenna Bush Hager.”

Line of Fire, Series Premiere, Monday, September 21, 10/9c, NBC