[1] Kerry Washington's character, Olivia Pope, is partially based on former George H. W. Bush administration press aide Judy Smith, who served as a co-executive producer.

In addition to Kerry Washington, the show features Tony Goldwyn as Fitzgerald Grant III, President of the United States—later a former president—and Olivia's main love interest; Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan, an assistant at OPA (later renamed Quinn Perkins & Associates or QPA), and also the former White House press secretary and chief of staff; Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins, former assistant at OPA and later head of QPA; Guillermo Diaz as Huck, a former agent of a spy agency called B613 and assistant at QPA; Jeff Perry as Cyrus Beene, the former White House chief of staff under Grant and later Vice President of the United States under Mellie Grant; Joshua Malina as David Rosen, the attorney general; Bellamy Young as Mellie Grant, the ex–First Lady, a former senator, and later the president of the United States after Grant; Scott Foley as Jake Ballard, the director of the NSA and Olivia's secondary love interest; Cornelius Smith Jr. as Marcus Walker, a civil rights activist, who used to be an OPA assistant and White House Press Secretary; Joe Morton as Eli "Rowan" Pope, Olivia's father and the former head of B613; and George Newbern as Charlie, a former B613 agent who later becomes a member of QPA.

In addition, it introduced the president of the United States, Fitzgerald Grant III (Tony Goldwyn) and his chief of staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry).

They discover during a military action code named "Operation Remington", Fitz shot down a civilian aircraft over Iceland and Olivia's mother was one of over 300 casualties.

Determined to find out the truth about Operation Remington, the firm investigates Rowan and learns that a passenger was removed from the flight by a Federal Marshal just prior to take off.

Quinn (Katie Lowes) starts to hang out with Charlie, who sets her up to kill a security guard who was an eye-witness to the Federal Marshal's removal of the passenger.

Meanwhile, Fitz faces problems when Congresswoman Josephine "Josie" Marcus (Lisa Kudrow) is in the running to win the Democratic Party primary against Senator Samuel Reston (Tom Amandes) and become the first female president of the United States.

The president's eldest children, Jerry (Dylan Minnette) and Karen Grant (Madeline Carroll), come to the White House for an interview, but Olivia soon figures out that they aren't pleased with their parents.

Later in the season, Abby finds herself stressed even more by the presence of her abusive ex-husband, who has been nominated for Virginia state senator, and she enlists Leo Bergen (Paul Adelstein) to help ruin his campaign.

She finally comes to terms with her loss after finding out that Jerry was murdered due to being deliberately exposed to bacterial meningitis rather than contracting the disease naturally, and she chooses to form an alliance with Elizabeth North (Portia de Rossi).

She continues managing Olivia Pope & Associates, which Marcus Walker (Cornelius Smith Jr.) becomes a part of, even using it to spin her image once the world looks down on her due to her new relationship with the President.

Cyrus, now vice-president after Olivia and Jake forced Luna Vargas to commit suicide at the previous season's end, finds himself on the cusp of finally achieving the position he has desired for so long.

Soon, however, everyone is caught up in one last scandal stirred up by Cyrus Beene that threatens to expose all of their various crimes over the past seven seasons to the public and land them all in prison or worse.

[19] During the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour, it was announced that the show would premiere April 5, 2012, after Grey's Anatomy, relocating Private Practice to Tuesday nights.

[25] On December 7, 2013, ABC Studios, announced that due to Kerry Washington's pregnancy, the overall episode order would be trimmed from 22 to 18,[26] which led the season finale to air four weeks earlier on April 17, 2014.

Jeff Perry, playing Cyrus Beene, said, "I'd love our show to invent a great role for a president after he's out [of] office that would reverberate back to the real world."

"[47] The first season had nine roles receiving star billing, including Kerry Washington as protagonist of the series, Olivia Pope, a former White House director of communications with her own crisis management firm.

Katie Lowes acted as Quinn Perkins, and Guillermo Diaz played the character Huck, the troubled tech guy who works for Olivia.

Henry Ian Cusick exited the show and did not return as his character Stephen Finch for the second season as the actor and showrunner Shonda Rhimes came to the mutual decision for him not to come back for the second year.

[57][58][59] On December 3, 2013, it was announced that the show was casting for a new role as a "handsome, charismatic fella" named Andrew, who would be a love interest for Bellamy Young's character, Mellie.

[42] Television host Ellen DeGeneres revealed on Twitter that her wife, Portia de Rossi, had been cast in a multiple-episode "top secret arc".

[83] TVLine announced on August 6, 2016, that Glee alum Jessalyn Gilsig would replace Joelle Carter as Vanessa Moss, Jake Ballard's wife.

[85] Production started at the beginning of July, as Rhimes tweeted that the writers were hard at work collaborating ideas and mapping out the fourth season.

[125]Alan Sepinwall of HitFix also changed his stance: When Scandal debuted last spring, I wasn't sure what to make of it, beyond recognizing that Kerry Washington had the goods to carry a series and Shonda Rhimes had fashioned an excellent role for her.

This season, though, Rhimes has kicked the show up to another level by ditching the Crisis of the Week procedural format in favor of reinventing Scandal as a gonzo hybrid of conspiracy thriller and high-stakes soap opera, involving election rigging, a presidential assassination attempt, a failed internal White House coup, and all sorts of other crazy shenanigans.

[164] In a one-on-one discussion with InStyle's Editorial Director, Ariel Foxman, Washington also revealed that it was her idea to have the entire cast of Scandal live-tweet.

[165]Washington, her cast mates, and even crew members live-tweeted during the airing of the pilot episode titled "Sweet Baby", inviting viewers to ask them questions using the hashtag, #AskScandal.

Promoting specific hashtags related to the show's most riveting storylines and "OMG" moments carried conversations and interest into subsequent seasons.

In the episodes leading up to the gunman's identity being revealed, #WhoShotFitz appeared on-screen, and anticipation heightened as Scandal's personnel encouraged fans to share their wildest theories.

The fear of encountering spoilers and missing out on a communal watch experience social media offered, ensured audiences tuned into the show every Thursday night for all seven seasons.