Sweet Baby (Scandal)

"Sweet Baby"
Scandal episode
The cast of the first season of Scandal, all of whom appear in the pilot episode.
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Directed by	Paul McGuigan
Written by	Shonda Rhimes
Featured music	"Respect Yourself" "Nothing Can Change This Love" "The Winner Is"
Original air date	April 5, 2012
Guest appearance(s)
Joshua Malina as David Rosen Bellamy Young as First Lady Mellie Grant Wes Brown as Lt. Col. Sullivan St. James Liza Weil as Amanda Tanner Leslie Grossman as Lisa
Episode chronology
← Previous — Next → "Dirty Little Secrets"
Scandal (season 1) List of Scandal episodes

"Sweet Baby" is the pilot episode of the American political thriller television series Scandal, which aired on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) on April 5, 2012. The episode was written by showrunner Shonda Rhimes and directed by Paul McGuigan. The episode introduces main character Olivia Pope, a crisis manager with her own firm, Olivia Pope & Associates, and its staff Stephen Finch, Harrison Wright, Abigail "Abby" Whelan, Huck and newly hired Quinn Perkins. Other main cast members include the staff at the White House in Washington D.C., President Fitzgerald "Fitz" Thomas Grant III, and White House Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene.

The episode was watched by an audience of 7.33 million, and received positive reviews from television critics.

Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes) comes to what she believes to be a blind date, only to find herself being interviewed by Harrison Wright (Columbus Short) for a job at Olivia Pope & Associates, a job that she's dreamed about for a while. At the same time, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) and Stephen Finch (Henry Ian Cusick) work on getting a Russian Ambassador's baby back from kidnappers, which Olivia successfully manages to do. Harrison takes Quinn to the office of OPA where she meets the other staff of the firm: Huck (Guillermo Diaz) and Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield). Just as they are all about to leave, Lieutenant Sully St James comes in pleading for help as his girlfriend has just been murdered; then Olivia gets a call from Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry) because a woman named Amanda Tanner (Liza Weil) has been saying that she has been sleeping with the president and he requests her help.