What is the Chief Usher's position in The Residence? Explained

The Residence, Netflix's latest whodunit, has impressed critics and viewers. The eight-episode Netflix series follows eccentric detective Cordelia Cupp, who also serves as a consultant with the Metropolitan Police Department, trying to solve the murder of A. B. Wynter (played by Giancarlo Esposito). In the show and the real world, the White House Chief Usher is the White House's head of staff and operations.

One of the interesting impacts of The Residence is that it has viewers wondering if the position is real and who hires them. Firstly, yes, the position of the White House Chief Usher is a real position. It is a non-political position chosen by the President and the First Lady. Generally, the person chosen as the Chief Usher is an experienced individual who understands how the White House works.

As for their tenure, a Chief Usher can serve in their position as long as the President deems them capable. For instance, Irwin H. "Ike" Hoover served as the chief usher for over 20 years. The Chief Usher position is a responsible position that requires one to ensure that everything stays within budget, which may cause conflict with other White House staff members.

In the show, it is because of his position as the Chief Usher that the murderer ultimately decides to kill Wynter.

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The Residence's main mystery explained: How did his role as the Chief Usher lead to A. B. Wynter's death?

A chief usher must maintain and navigate complex interpersonal dynamics with other staff members while maintaining strict professionalism. As we see in The Residence, a Chief Usher is responsible for everything, i.e., managing the White House staff to coordinating different factors of major events. They also ensure that the event stays on budget.

The series reveals that almost every White House staff member has had some sort of conflict with Wynter because of his responsibility of keeping everything within the confines of the budget. To ensure that the budget for every event is used efficiently and reduce wasteful expenses, it is revealed that Wynter maintained accounts of different expenditures.

As the eighth and last episode of The Residence reveals, this habit of maintaining expense records helped Wynter identify social secretary Lilly Schumacher's financial misdeeds. He realizes that apart from stealing money, Schumacher was cavalierly giving away contracts to enjoy kickbacks. The presidential social secretary formulated the plan to murder Wynter after he confronted her, discovering her corrupt practices.

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Who stars in Netflix's The Residence?

The whodunit set in The White House was announced back in March 2022. At that time, Giancarlo Esposito was not a part of The Residence. Instead, the role of A. B. Wynter was to be initially played by none other than Andre Braugher, who was known as Captain Raymond Holt in Brooklyn Nine-Nine. However, the series had to suffer two setbacks. The first was the 2023 labor dispute, i.e., the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

When that labor dispute was resolved, production was set to resume in January 2024. However, before the production could resume, Braugher sadly passed away on December 11, 2023. Thus, roughly two months later, in February 2024, it was announced that Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito was brought in to fill Braugher's shoes. Other than him, the series includes:

1. Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp
2. Susan Kelechi Watson as Jasmine Haney
3. Ken Marino as Harry Hollinger
4. Randall Park as FBI Special Agent Edwin Park
5. Paul Fitzgerald as President Perry Morgan
6. Molly Griggs as Lilly Schumacher
7. Spencer Garrett as Wally Glick

The official synopsis of the series reads:

“132 rooms. 157 suspects. One dead body. One wildly eccentric detective. One disastrous State Dinner. The Residence is a screwball whodunnit set in the upstairs, downstairs, and backstairs of the White House, among the eclectic staff of the world's most famous mansion.”

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All eight episodes of The Residence are currently available to stream on Netflix.