FOX's "24" Season 7 Premiere Party

This Sunday, FOX's "24" finally returns after a strike-induced year-off (actually, 20 months off). It all begins, as always, with 4 hours of adrenalin-pumping Jack Bauer action, who is moving to Washington, D.C. this season. Actor Kiefer Sutherland and the rest of the "24" team celebrated...


...the return of the FOX clock-ticking action series a couple of nights ago at a premiere party in Hollywood. The network honchos would of course like to know if the show will manage to generate decent ratings, following a critically-panned and ratings-challenged 6th season.


This year's 2-hour prequel which aired in November under the title "Redemption" did very well (especially in comparison to the rest of FOX's prime-time, which has been rather underwhelming all fall long). Now if Jack and the gang can keep those numbers up for another 24 hours...

FOX's "24": Season 7 Production Problems

Production on the upcoming season 7 of FOX's clock-ticking action drama "24" starring Kiefer Sutherland will be shut down as of next week giving the writers 3 weeks to come up with better scripts.

The show has been plagued with problems ever since its concluded its Emmy-winning 5th season in 2006.

The follow-up season "Day 6" was a ratings and critical failure despite a very promising opening featuring such over-the-top storylines as a nuclear explosion in Los Angeles.



For this reason, "24" producers decided to refresh the series by taking Jack Bauer out of L.A. and putting him into an exotic location.

FOX executives however nixed the original choice because of an over-inflated budget required for shooting the series in Africa and ordered that the scripts be re-written and the new season set in Washington, DC instead.

This caused a costly delay in production schedule last summer. When the new season of "24" finally began filming, the writers' strike brought it to another halt after only 8 episodes had been completed.



At this point FOX decided not to air a new season of "24" in 2008, as they were no longer able to complete all 24 episodes in time for the January-May schedule, thus postponing the new season till January 2009.

After re-starting production earlier this year and filming a 2-hour prequel movie (scheduled to air on Sunday, November 23) and 10 additional episodes (for a total of 18), lights will go off again come September 15.

FOX is hoping the 3-week hiatus will help improve the quality of the final 6 scripts. When the prequel movie premieres in November, the show will have been off air for 18 months. Will the viewers be back?

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FOX's "24": Day 7 Cast

FOX has released the first promo still of the cast of 24's "Day 7" which is scheduled to begin in January 2009 after a year-long delay caused by the writers' strike.

Last fall FOX managed to film 8 episodes of "24" before the strike shut the Washington and Los Angeles based production down.

FOX may air a Day 7 prequel feature film this fall to cut the 20-month long hiatus between the 6th and 7th seasons of the show.

Pictured above: Rhys Coiro, Janeane Garofalo, Jeffrey Nordling, Annie Wersching, Carlos Bernard, Kiefer Sutherland, James Morrison, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Colm Feore, Cherry Jones and Bob Gunton.

FOX will unveil its 2008-2009 schedule at an Upfronts event next Thursday in New York City.

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"24" Season 7 Two-Hour Prequel to Air in Fall

FOX had said the 7th season of its action drama "24" would be delayed because of the writers' strike till January 2009, but now it appears the show will be back a little sooner with a two-hour "prequel" to the upcoming season.

In previous years, FOX posted short season prequels online as part of marketing efforts to tout the January premieres of the show.

But since the last episode of the show aired in May 2007 and the network resisted pressures to bring the show back in the fall 2008 in order to preserve the non-stop season, FOX has decided to extend the prequel into a full feature movie.

It is not yet clear whether the movie would air during November sweeps or at an earlier point.

The studio filmed 8 episodes of the Washington-based season 7 prior to the strike. The filming of the rest of the season will begin in April.

The new 2-hour movie will be designed to bridge the gap between events in seasons 6 and 7.

Since 2005, the show has been airing January-May without preemptions because of its real time format.

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"24" Renewed Through 2009

MAY 16, 2007: FOX has issued an unusually late renewal for its Monday night thriller "24" for two more seasons. The producers have promised to completely re-invent the struggling drama.

The show star Kiefer Sutherland is already on board through 2009 as part of last year's 3-year 8-figure deal.

The drama will return with a new cast (some favorites may return) and a new non-Los Angeles location.

Following a successful Emmy-winning 5th season, the drama drew a lot of criticism this year.

Executive producer/showrunner Howard Gordon believes it was unfair: "On balance, it was a very successful season," he said.

FOX has already renewed "House," "Prison Break," "Bones," " 'Till Death" as well as the network's Sunday animated comedy block.

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"24" Spoilers: FOX's "24" Goes Completely Berserk: Hour #4 Ends With A Double Bang

JANUARY 14, 2007: They have shot down Air Force One, they have impeached a President, they have even assassinated one. But, if you thought "24" could not go any further - think again. FOX's non-stop thriller pulls out all the stops tonight going completely insane.

Last night Day Six dawned on FOX's "24" as the network brought Jack Bauer and the CTU team back for another 24 heart-pounding hours of non-stop action.

As the season opens, America is under attack in a series of bombings that began 11 weeks ago.

Unbeknownst to him President Palmer is about to make a deal with Fayed, the very terrorist who is responsible for the carnage across America.

Jack Bauer learns Hamri Al-Assad, the man the government was about to assassinate was not responsible for the bombings and was the moderate force in the terrorist organization who tried to arrange a ceasefire with the West.

Bauer tries to explain to the White House, Fayed is the man behind all attacks, who actually wants to sabotage the ceasefire initiative.

MASSIVE SPOILERS BEGIN, DO NOT READ THE TEXT BELOW IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO KNOW THE MAJOR CLIFFHANGER ON TONIGHT'S EPISODE OF "24".

As Jack Bauer races against the clock to save Assad and prove Fayed is the man the government should target, he and the CTU realize Fayed may be in possession of a nuclear device and unless they stop him he will detonate it on American soil.

As Jack Bauer and Counter Terrorist Unit expose Fayed's devious scheme, Fayed himself arranges the escape of a nuclear scientist and a terrorist who is supposed to help him put the nuclear bomb together.

Meanwhile, Jack Bauer encounters serious obstacles in his own unit, as Curtis who does not trust Assad and has tragic history with him, objects to his efforts to help America.

In concluding moments of this unbelievable two-hour episode, Curtis decides to take law into his own hands and execute Assad. Bauer can not allow for that to happen and despite his strong feelings for Curtis he aims his gun at him and shoots.

Curtis falls to the ground with fatal injuries as Bauer falters away vomiting stricken by the idea that he had just shot dead his friend.



The special units are closing in on Fayed as CTU locates the bomb site, but it is too late.



The President and his staffers at the White House, the CTU and even the unresponsive Jack Bauer watch in shock horror and disbelief as the nuclear bomb is detonated in Los Angeles and a mushroom cloud raises to the sky.

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FOX Removes "24" From Schedule

The writers' strike may cost the people involved with the production of FOX's "24" a year's worth of work - the network has decided to take season 7 of the clock-ticking drama off the schedule until the strike is resolved. The show which is already behind production schedule may most probably not be able to return to FOX before January 2009.

The show originally intended to lead-into a new season of "24" "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" will move up to 9pm to fill the vacant slot and premiere as originally planned on January 14.

Emmy-winning "24" was heavily criticized in its disappointing 6th season and the writers promised a radical shift in storytelling.

If the show is off the schedule for 19 months all bets are off with regard to its future - the ratings have already gone down about 33% last spring.

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VIDEO: "24" Trailer Premieres as Production Moves to Washington, D.C.

The production of FOX's heart-pounding thriller "24" moved to Washington D.C. on Wednesday as an exclusive "Day 7" trailer premiered on the Internet. Details and trailer, after the jump.

For the first time since "24" premiered in the fall of 2001, the scenes are being shot out of Los Angeles.

The production crew will remain in the nation's capital until the end of next week and shoot scenes from 8 different episodes.

Although the entire storyline of "Day 7" is expected to take place in Washington, many of the scenes will still be filmed in Los Angeles.

The cast and crew may however return to the capital to shoot additional scenes in the spring.

In addition to studios, the producers have used several old buildings in downtown L.A. that resemble the architecture of Washington.

The crew will also take a lot of additional footage of Washington and later blend that with actors filmed in front of green screens in L.A. studios.

"24" lost a great deal of its audience in the critically-panned 6th season (although many fans now catch up with Jack Bauer on DVR) and the network hopes the change of location will breathe new life into the tired series.

Now take a look at the new season featuring a female US President, Jack Bauer on trial and the return of the presumed-dead Tony Almeida as a (gulp!) bad guy?

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"24" Sneak Peek to Premiere October 25

FOX will unveil a new extended "Day 7" trailer for its clock-ticking thriller "24" at www.24trailer.com and in New York's Time Square on the iconic News Astrovision by Panasonic next Thursday. Check out the details the network released about the new season set in Washington and scheduled to premiere January 13, 8-10pm.

"Day 7" opens with CTU dismantled and Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) on trial. Bauer's day takes an unexpected turn when former colleague Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) returns.

Meanwhile, Madame President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) leads the country alongside White House Chief of Staff Ethan Kanin (Bob Gunton) and First Gentleman Henry Taylor (Colm Feore).

A national security crisis prompts an investigation by a team of FBI agents including Agent Janis Gold (Janeane Garofalo), Agent Renee Walker (Annie Wersching), Agent Larry Moss (Jeffrey Nordling), Agent Sean Hillinger (Rhys Coiro) and security specialist Michael Latham (John Billingsley).

Although CTU is no longer, Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) are back for another momentous day of shocking events.

After the 2-hour premiere, "24" moves into its regular timeslot on Monday, January 14 at 9/8c and will run uninterrupted all the way into June.

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"24" Endangered by Sutherland's DUI Arrest

The production on FOX's Emmy-winning, but troubled drama "24" which finally began after two delays a couple of weeks ago, may be endangered once again if the show star Kiefer Sutherland is sent to prison, following his DUI arrest on Tuesday morning which violates his 5-year probation stemming from an earlier arrest. Check out the pics of the star taken at a FOX party hours before the arrest, after the jump.


As Hollywood trade press reports, Sutherland drove straight from the set of "24" to the party, which took place at hotspot Area celebrating the launch of FOX's fall season, and was offered a company limo service but declined.

He was then arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. He tested over the state's legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08% and is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 16.


Sutherland is scheduled to continue his work on "24" today, so his 3-hour stay in jail on Tuesday morning did not affect the production. The actor however faces a maximum sentence of one year in jail as well as additional trouble for violating his probation from a similar 2004 conviction.

Time will tell if his legal problems affect the already troubled production of "24."

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Kiefer's 24-Style Citroen Ad

"24" may have lost some luster in the past season on FOX, but that can't be said for this funny Citroën ad Kiefer Sutherland filmed in São Paulo, Brazil which was inspired by the Emmy-winning series. Argentinian actress/model, Araceli González also stars. Thanks to Cibele for alerting me to this great ad.

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Rebecca Mader Joins "LOST", Plus "24" & "Brothers & Sisters" Hot Casting News

British-born actress Rebecca Mader ("Justice") joins ABC's "LOST" possibly in the role originally intended for Kristen Bell, the producers of "24" find First Husband and ABC books Emily Rose as Rebecca's girlfriend on "Brothers & Sisters."

The producers of "LOST" would not elaborate on details, but it is presumed Mader may be playing Charlotte, "a hot and successful academic in her twenties, who is also funny, precocious and knows how to take care of herself in the real world."


Meanwhile, as the writers of FOX's "24" attempt to put together scripts for the upcoming 7th season (production has been delayed twice, should begin September 10), Colm Feore was added to the cast in the role of First Husband. Cherry Jones was cast earlier this summer as the first female US President.

Finally, actress Emily Rose will appear in as many as 8 episodes of the second season of ABC's California-based sudser "Brothers & Sisters" as the friend of Emily van Camp's character Rebecca who gets a job with the Walker family.


Both Rebecca Mader ("LOST") and Emily Rose ("Brothers & Sisters") will make guest appearances in two other notable prime-time dramas. Mader will guest star in the first episode of ABC's "Private Practice," while Rose will appear in an episode of the post-apocalypse drama "Jericho" which returns to CBS this fall saved by the nuts.

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Janeane Garofalo Joins "24"

Actress-comedian Janeane Garofalo, who is an outspoken liberal and a vocal critic of the Iraq war, has joined FOX's conservative-leaning thriller "24" with a strong Republican background.

"24" whose producer Joel Surnow jokingly describes himself as a "right-wing nut job" will begin production on its seventh season on September 10 after two delays caused by creative changes.

Garofalo will play a government agent who is part of the team investigating the crisis that befalls agent Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) in the upcoming season. Cherry Jones has already joined the show as first female US President.

Garofalo's most recent prime-time gig was closer to home - on Aaron Sorkin's left-leaning White House drama "The West Wing." She also recently lended her voice to the hit Walt Disney Co./Pixar animated feature "Ratatouille.

Once an Emmy-award winning Nielsen smash, "24" was heavily criticized during its sixth cycle for being repetitive and uninspired. The show is popular with a number of notable liberals, including former President Bill Clinton.

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"24" Clock Stopped Again

The production on the 7th season of FOX's clock-ticking thriller "24," scheduled to begin on August 27, has been halted again and delayed until September 10. This is the second delay in production after FOX nixed the producers' plans to set the next season of the award-winning series in Africa.

As Hollywood press reports, the show star Kiefer Sutherland (pictured above, middle) was to report to duty on Monday in two weeks, but the writers have not been able to put out enough scripts for the new season-long plot. Originally, they were supposed to start production in late July.

"24" completed its heavily-criticized and lower-rated sixth season in May. The producers vowed to give their show a major overhaul for the 7th season and announced they would be taking Jack Bauer (Sutherland) out of the CTU premises in LA and putting him into a new location.

FOX however nixed their plans to set the new season in Africa. Since the show of "24" caliber would never film scenes there are supposed to take place in Africa in a US-based studio or exterior location, the writers had to go back to the drawing board in July and come up with a new plot.

The observers fear that the heart-pounding show that peaked in its amazing Emmy Award-winning 5th season before descending in both ratings and quality in the lackluster 6th season, may continue its decline if the writers come up with poor scripts under strong time pressure.

Cherry Jones is so far the only actress to join the show in the 7th season as the first female US President.

The 7th season of "24" is expected to premiere in January 2008 on FOX.

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FOX Men Spill Spoilers

Stars of hit dramas "24," "House" and "Prison Break" celebrated the launch of FOX's new fall season at the TCA oceanfront party on Monday talking about the upcoming plotlines designed to keep the fans glued to the tube. Check out what Kiefer Sutherland, Hugh Laurie and Wentworth Miller revealed, after the jump.


Kiefer Sutherland of Award-winning, but recently critically-panned thriller "24" said to USA Today he was looking forward to the drama's first female president, Cherry Jones, when the show returns in January.



"I hope people will make the distinction between television and reality," said Sutherland of comparisons to the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. "But I can tell you one thing. We had the first African American president on television (Dennis Haysbert's President Palmer), and now Barack Obama is a serious candidate. That wasn't going to happen eight years ago. Television is an incredibly powerful medium, and it can be the first step in showing people what is possible."



British actor Hugh Laurie who plays the cranky Dr. House on the hit medical series said to TV Guide the first three scripts of the new season were "phenomenal," in fact they were three of the best scripts he had ever read.


According to the producers, when the drama returns in September, Dr. House will be trying to solve cases alone (Jesse Spencer, Omar Epps and Jennifer Morrison nevertheless return).



Olivia Wilde (The O.C., The Black Donnellys) will be just one of at least 5 candidates who make it to the final round for a plum position at Princeton-Plainsboro after House selects from the initial 40.



Finally, Prison Break star Wentworth Miller revealed to TV Guide that Another World’s Jodi Lyn O’Keefe will join the cast as a mysterious woman named Susan B who interacts with Dominic Purcell’s character.



"The two of them apparently have a great amount of chemistry on camera," Miller says.



As for Miller's character Michael Scofield? "Michael has always been the smartest guy in the room, but now it’s about improvisation and thinking on his feet. It raises the stakes for him and makes for a more intense story," Miller says.

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FOX Nixes "24" Day 7 Plot, "Drive" Burnoff

The relentless network axe has swung again. FOX has decided to scrap the entire storyline for season 7 of its fading thriller "24" which was supposed to go into production in a couple of weeks. At the same time, the network quietly announced it would never air the final two installments of "Drive" they first promised to air July 4 and then July 13.

Just as the former NBC chief Kevin Reilly (that's the good guy who stood by 'Friday Night Lights' all season long) assumed his new position as President of Entertainment at FOX, the network took some drastic measures that indicate trouble behind the scenes of its Emmy-winning drama "24" that once ruled the ratings and generated critical accolades.

In its sixth season "24" and its tired storytelling failed to generate any excitement and following a decent 15 million+ opener, the drama fizzled out barely crossing the 10 million mark at the end of the season. The producers promised to toss out the entire CTU and refresh the aging series with a completely new concept come January 2008 when Day 7 premieres.


Unfortunately, as TV Guide reports, the network made an 11th-hour move yesterday and tossed out the plan to shoot a number of episodes in Africa. The plan was to take Kiefer Sutherland's invincible Jack Bauer and put him into a completely new setting. Albeit, that won't be Africa, as FOX finds the idea too expensive. That means the writers have to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch.

Production on the seventh season of "24" has therefore been delayed and it won't start before mid August. But can the writers come up with a compelling (yet not too expensive to produce) plot to save the dying series in only 5 weeks ahead? I smell a disaster. Boy those networks sure know how to screw up their own shows, don' they?

Finally, FOX has quietly announced (in a press release for "5th grader") that they won't be airing the final two episodes of "Drive," starring Nathan Fillion, which they originally promised to air back-to-back on July 4 and then, July 13. No word if the episode will make it to its My Space page either. Instead, FOX will air repeats of "Bones" and the final 2 episodes of "Standoff" on July 13 and 20.

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"24" to Elect First Female President?

An all-new and hopefully improved "Day 7" of FOX's Emmy-winning "24" that kicks off in January 2008 will go where ABC's 2005 drama "Commander In Chief" (starring Geena Davis) has gone before - TV Guide reports the non-stop series will elect its first female president.

If Hillary Clinton does happen to run for the office in 2008 it will be interesting to see how people behind this show, who are known for their strong Republican background, portray the fictional female president. Hillary's husband Bill, who is a fan of the show, will sure keep an eye on that.

The producers would not confirm any of the upcoming storylines, but following a disappointing sixth cycle, great changes are in store, including the disappearance of CTU and a change of location. New York, Washington D.C. or even London, UK are possible destinations.

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3 Years of Jail for Uploading "24"?

You might want to think twice before uploading anything onto the Internet. Remember the guy who youtubed the entire 6th season premiere of FOX's "24" including the L.A. nuclear explosion twist before it actually aired? He may be going to jail for 3 years.

According to Hollywood trade press, Jorge Romero, 24, of Chicago, is accused of uploading four "24" episodes he discovered in January at an unspecified location online and posting them on LiveDigital.com 8 days before their primetime premiere.

The FBI's criminal complaint charges Romero "with uploading copyrighted material to a publicly accessible computer network knowing the work was intended for commercial distribution, a felony that carries a statutory maximum sentence of three years in federal prison."

Twentieth Century Fox, which produces "24," issued a statement supporting the FBI investigation.

"We are grateful to the FBI and U.S. Attorney's offices in Los Angeles for aggressively pursuing this matter, and we hope it will serve as a powerful warning that uploading copyrighted TV shows and movies to the Internet can be a crime with significant penalties and will be prosecuted as such.

In January, Fox served both LiveDigital and YouTube with a subpoena demanding they disclose the identity of the user who had uploaded episodes of "24" and "The Simpsons."

Romero is not accused of placing the episodes on the Internet, but facilitating their distribution once they were already put there by an unspecified party. Romero admitted to the FBI in an April interview that he had found the episodes online.

The Fox statement continues, "Video-hosting sites such as LiveDigital.com and YouTube are not copyright-free zones, and individuals like Jorge Romero who post episodes of television shows, particularly before they are even broadcast for the first time, will face harsh civil and criminal sanctions."

You don't think Romero will stay a fan of "24," do you?

Obviously, a lot of people upload copyrighted clips all over the Internet every single day.

What made this case special was that the guy didn't only post a clip, he went for the whole shabang. And he did so before the show even aired.

I do wonder at this point however, given the global scale of the Internet, what would have happened had those episodes not been uploaded from the U.S. soil.

Full episodes of US shows are regularly available on a number of websites across the world (including many Chinese locations and a popular French one).

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400th "Simpsons" Goes "24"

Can you believe it has been 18 years already? As yet another season of FOX's "The Simpsons" ends with a one hour finale tomorrow night (Kiefer Sutherland makes another voice cameo in a "24" spoof called "24 Minutes") some feel compelled to ask - how long can the show go on?

The animated series premiered in 1989 having started as short segments on "The Tracy Ullman Show." Being able to appeal to masses, it quickly grew into a 5 billion dollar business for the News Corp. Co. which own FOX Broadcasting.

The producers believe their success in unbelievable in today's climate of reduced ratings as more and more viewers find alternative entertainment on DVD, The Internet and other platforms.

Although the show has reached the point when it no longer needs to produce new shows and if it were to go off air it would continue to make a lot of money for decades to come, it appears "The Simpsons" may eventually exceed "Gunsmoke" (20 years, 633 episodes) as the longest running scripted series of all time.

Despite the fact the show ratings have now gone down to an average of 8,7 million viewers this year, with The Simpsons Movie opening July 27, a video game due later this year and a Simpsons theme park ride, the franchise won't be going away any time soon.


In tomorrow night's episode: Principal Skinner ushers the students of Springfield Elementary into a new era of sneaking, snooping and snitching with the opening of the school's CTU Counter Truancy Unit with Lisa heading up the operation.

Homer is sent on a mission to dispose of a container of yogurt so far past its freshness date that it could be toxic, but the reeking yogurt falls into the wrong hands.

With the help of Jack Bauer (guest voice Kiefer Sutherland) and Chloe O'Brian (guest voice Mary Lynn Rajskub), Bart and Lisa must stop bullies Dolph, Kearney and Jimbo from releasing the ultimate stink bomb at the school's annual bake sale.

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Why Eric Balfour Was Killed Off Of "24"

CTU was under siege on this week's episode of "24" and the event claimed the life of yet another character of the FOX drama which has been heavily criticized this season for having lost its way. Eric Balfour was however the one who asked the producers himself to kill off Milo. Here are the details, plus a shocking fate for CTU.

Former "Six Feet Under" and "The O.C." hottie Eric Balfour played CTU's Internet protocol manager on FOX's clock-ticking thriller who saved Nadia Yassir (Marisol Nichols) by taking a bullet to the head instead of her.



In an interview to TV Guide Balfour explains: "About two months ago, I got an offer to do a CBS cop show that sounded really exciting, and I felt it was a golden opportunity."

The actor is referring to the pilot "Protect and Serve" about LAPD police officers, co-starring former Superman Dean Cain. According to early buzz, the pilot is looking good to make it onto the CBS schedule next season.

Balfour also revealed that another reason he wanted to leave the show was the fact that "24" will be re-invented for the next season, and that means there will no longer be CTU on the show.

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