24

Guide Note: Each hour-ong episode of the Fox action-drama series 24 follows the course of a single hour in the life of counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer, portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland. Put together, a single season of the series makes up a single, 24-hour day, during which there is typically a terrorist threat to the United States which Bauer and his colleagues at the CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) must thwart.

Fast Facts:

1. New Episodes: Mondays, 9PM
2. Network: Fox
3. Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Carlos Bernard, Colm Feore, Cherry Jones
4. Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran
5. Season 7 begins January 2009
6. First Aired: 2001

Awards

24 has won numerous Emmy Awards, particularly in technical categories such as Sound Mixing. In 2002, Surnow and Cochran won for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, and the show took home Outstanding Drama Series in 2006. It has also won 2 Golden Globes, for Best Dramatic Series in 2004, and for Kiefer Sutherland's performance as Bauer in 2002, for the show's first season.

Controversy

Because it deals with issues of counter-terrorism and plots against Homeland Security, and because creator Joel Surnow is an outspoken conservative, 24 has become a much-discussed and politicized series.

The Council on American-Islamic Relation has complained that the series implies that it's okay to harm or discriminate against Muslims. As well, in February of 2007, the New Yorker reported that U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan and several CIA experts met with the producers of 24 to express their concern about the show's depiction of American operatives torturing terrorists. Specifically, the concerns were over depictions of torture that could do damage to the reputation of the United States abroad and encourage real U.S. soldiers to resort to such tactics.

In 2006, think tank The Heritage Foundation held a panel discussion, moderated by 24 fan Rush Limbaugh, about "24 and America's Image in Fighting Terrorism."