FOX is leaning toward keeping the catchy, hour-to-hour format of the breakout hit “24.”
The show, starring Kiefer Sutherland as a frenzied, counter-terrorism expert named Jack Bauer, turned out to be one of this season’s most talked-about thrillers. It also did what few shows ever get to do – grow steadily each week in the ratings.
“It’s something that all of us are incredibly proud of,” Sutherland said yesterday. “It’s something that’s very unconventional for television and the great satisfaction in doing this, compared to doing a film, is the amazing response you get on the street as you’re doing it.”
Still, it was a nail-biter waiting to see if the show would be renewed this year. Producers were told late Tuesday night that the show will be back.
This season, the show unfolded in real time – each episode encapsulating one hour of a single, action-packed day in Bauer’s life.
The show’s executive producer, Howard Gordon, a former producer on “The X-Files,” says Fox brass is considering making each episode a stand-alone story.
“I think the only alternative now would be a stand-alone [format] where every episode would be another day,” Gordon said. “And every episode would define a 24-hour period.”
The logic behind the option would be so that viewers who miss episodes wouldn’t feel lost when they tune in later in the season.
If the show was to return next season in real time, Gordon says the new story will take place a year later, with Sen. David Palmer (played Dennis Haysbert) now in the White House.
They also would like to keep the show’s ominous ticking clock that pops up between commercial breaks, as well as the show’s split-screen style that harkensback classic films like the original “Thomas Crown Affair.”
Given the choice, Gordon wants to retain the show’s real time format and “we’d keep all the stuff that makes the show unique and compelling and do another day” in Bauer’s life, he says.