Super Bowl Restarts 24's Clock

Can the Franchise, Which Relaunches Right After the Big Game, Keep on Ticking Without Jack Bauer? Fox Is About to Find Out. 
 

- Jason Lynch

Fox hopes that its Super Bowl telecast breaks ratings records on Sunday, Feb. 5 (topping the 114.4 million who watched two years ago on NBC), but the performance of the show that follows it is even more important to the network’s long-term bottom line. That’s when Fox will launch 24: Legacy, its eagerly awaited reboot of the hit Kiefer Sutherland series, which ran for nine seasons.

Launching the new show—which stars Corey Hawkins as Eric Carter, a U.S. Army Ranger in hiding who is pressed into service when terrorists find him—after the Super Bowl was a “unanimous” decision, said Dana Walden, co-chairman and co-CEO, Fox Television Group. But it’s also a huge gamble: can the franchise continue without Jack Bauer? (Sutherland won’t appear on the series but signed on as an executive producer, and worked with executive producer Howard Gordon on story ideas for a few early scripts.)

“There’s always the chicken or the egg question: Is 24 Jack Bauer or is 24 real time? It’s both,” said Gordon. “But that character had run its course, and real time as a narrative engine, as a brand, was always compelling as a writer and as a way to tell the story. The challenge was finding a character who could animate this franchise, and we finally did.”