Scandal season 1

The first season of the ABC American television drama series Scandal premiered on April 5, 2012 and concluded on May 17, 2012, with a total of 7 episodes.

Plot
This season introduces Olivia Pope and the various members of her firm, as well as President of the United States Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn) and Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry), his chief of staff. The season focused on the lives of the team members, the relationship between Olivia and the president (her former employer), and the mystery surrounding Amanda Tanner's (Liza Weil) involvement with the White House, among other cases the team solved.

Main

 * Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope
 * Henry Ian Cusick as Stephen Finch
 * Columbus Short as Harrison Wright
 * Darby Stanchfield as Abigail "Abby" Whelan
 * Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins
 * Guillermo Diaz as Huck
 * Jeff Perry as White House Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene
 * Tony Goldwyn as President Fitzgerald "Fitz" Thomas Grant III

Recurring

 * Joshua Malina as David Rosen
 * Bellamy Young as First Lady Melody "Mellie" Grant
 * Brendan Hines as Gideon Wallace
 * Matt Letscher as Billy Chambers
 * Liza Weil as Amanda Tanner
 * Dan Bucatinsky as James Novak
 * Kate Burton as Vice President Sally Langston
 * Brian Letscher as Tom Larsen
 * George Newbern as Charlie

Guest stars

 * Mimi Kennedy as Sharon Marquette
 * JoBeth Williams as Sandra Harding
 * Valerie Cruz as Carolina Flores
 * Brenda Song as Alissa
 * Samantha Sloyan as Jeannine Locke
 * Wes Brown as Lieutenant Sully St. James

Reception
The series has been met with a generally favorable response from critics, with many being intrigued by the mysteries on the show and praised the show for having an African-American lead role. The series started with generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 87% approval rating with an average rating of 6.60/10 based on 31 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Scandal is a soapy show about work and love that's over the top but never boring." Metacritic gave the show a rating of 66 out of 100 based on 33 reviews.