End in sight for hit show 24

Posted: Jun 13, 2009 9:47 pm

I really don't think Season 8 will be the last season. 24 still rates really well (12.62 million viewers) and has a great 18-49 demographic. It earns the most money through advertising revenue, second only to American Idol. I'm sure Fox will definitely want to keep it around for a ninth season - it earns them alot of money.

Howard Gordon might want to end the show, but ultimately it's the Fox execs choice - they will try really hard to negotiate salaries for the 24 crew that keep the show going through Season 9. Take a look at other successful shows with long runs - X-Files - 10 seasons! And Friends, everyone thought it would end after Season 9 but ABC commissioned a tenth season! The same will happen for 24, I'm sure of it.

I like to think of the show as having trilogies - Season 1-3 and Season 4-6 had self-contained plot lines: Season 1-3 had Palmer's presidency, Jack and Nina, Jack and Kim and the old CTU. All these storylines were self-contained within those three seasons. Season 4-6 had Jack, Audrey and Heller, Logan's arc, Jack and the chinese, the new CTU, Palmer's death. Self-contained storylines aswell.

Now the third trilogy has begun - Season 7 had brand new storylines, and they will continue in Season 8. Plotlines like Jack reuniting with Kim, Jack answering for his past crimes, East Coast setting (not LA), Taylor's presidency and Renee's arc are all brand new. If we get a Season 9 they can self-contain these plotlines in the final trilogy. Basically what I'm saying is 24 would not be complete without Season 9!

Posted: Jun 13, 2009 10:28 pm

I'm pretty sure Kiefer has said that he'll keep coming back if the writers can come up with something good. I don't think money is a factor for him. I think he's the highest paid actor on TV right now anyway.

Posted: Jun 14, 2009 3:40 pm

To Stephen Saunders, all very good points and I hope your right about at least a season 9. My only concern is when actors and producers feel they've done all they can "artistically" on a show...well hopefully I'm just paranoid!

Posted: Jun 16, 2009 8:01 am

Thanks Brutus Maximus, and yeah the 24 crew seems to doubt their ability to keep the show going past Season 8. I really hope they will tho! People say that 24 is constrained, with the time limit, but really the potential for story is quite broad. They can do anything they like plotwise - surely not every great thriller terrorism scenario has been thought of yet! So I have faith in the writers that they can keep coming up with great new content!

We know already that Season 8 will be based around alliances with middle easterns and an assassination attempt on one of their American-based leaders. I'm guessing this plot won't stick around for long and will develop further into other plots - maybe threatening thousands of american citizens again, maybe not. But I hope they take a break from this because it's not as exciting if the threat doesn't have some kind of consequence for those citizens, and that those consequences are ACTUALLY SHOWN on screen.

It's no use having the terrorist threat if we don't see what it can do and if there's no storyline which follows these 'innocent civilians' going through it. That's why the virus threat in Season 3 worked really well, because it was released in the CHANDLER PLAZA HOTEL and those people were affected. The portrayal of the guy who got out and infected people on the street made it really intense (although we never found out if the virus had been contained completely, which was dumb).

Just one other point to make: What would be story-worthy enough to bring the show back for a ninth season? They've already done the potential death of Jack Bauer a couple of times now, but it could be reworked to feature again in Season 9 - that way we get perfect closure for the character and intensity for the show at the same time - "The final day in the life of Jack Bauer" - because for it to be the final season, doesn't it really HAVE to be the final day? (I'm hoping a prequel for the movie for this to work).

Closure would also have to mean that other major players would have their plots completed. The ambiguous fate of Martha and Charles Logan could finally be explained. How about if Jack wrongfully ends up in a mental hospital back in LA, and at the beginning of Season 9, Jack finds Martha in the same institution. Martha is still a bit mentally unstable, but has stopped taking her pills secretly so she could focus on researching more about a terrorist attack she found out about. No institution staff believe her, but she shows her research to Jack and he believes her. In order to stop it, they have to escape by Martha agreeing to make it look like Jack's taken her as a hostage. Aaron finds out, has an emotional reunion with Martha and secretly aids them behind President Taylors' back, along with Chloe who's been working covertly at CTU. Eventually this could lead them to Charles Logan, who's been brain-damaged ever since Martha stabbed him. This is where Tony could come back, allowed out from jail temporarily by Renee, so that he can get closure from Logan about Michelle's death.

Maybe we can also find out from Logan how David Palmer found out about his conspiracy? And what state Wayne Palmer is in? If all the unanswered questions get addressed in Season 9, all the plotlines will fit together perfectly!

Posted: Jul 01, 2009 5:11 pm

I hope day 8 is not the end

Posted: Sep 08, 2009 11:08 am

i hope s 8 won't be the last...there's no other show like it.

i love jack bauer!

Posted: Sep 08, 2009 2:13 pm

Here's my two cents. As much as I love the show, and I really love it, I would hate the show start to suffer and falter. The show has had a good run so far, even if the sixth season had issues, but I would rather the writers and producers would, to qoute Steven Bochco when talking about the end of NYPD Blue, leave the party an hour early than an hour late.