"24" Returning As A One Season, 12 Episode Event Series

Hollywood Reporter – Just days after Fox canceledKiefer Sutherland dramaTouch, the actor is returning to Fox to reprise his role as Jack Bauer in a 24 limited series. The continuation of the series — which spanned 192 episodes and a TV movie from 2001-10 — will be produced by its former showrunner, Howard Gordon(Homeland). Like the original series, the reboot, dubbed 24: Live Another Day, hails from 20th Television and Imagine TV’s Brian Grazer with Gordon’s banner Teakwood Lane on board to co-produce. Fox will bow the limited project — which will tell a 24-hour story over 12 episodes that jump hours — in May 2014. “24 compressed over 12 weeks, Jack is back,” Fox entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly told reporters early Monday during a conference call ahead of the network’s upfront presentation. The executive noted24 will likely mark Fox’s first limited run series with the potential for additional closed-ended stories in the franchise.  The revival of 24 as a limited series comes a year after hopes for a big-screen adaptation fizzled when 20th Century Fox and producer Imagine could not agree on a budget after Suthlerland and producers including Gordon had been committed to doing it for years.  Reilly noted that as 24 producers began crafting the plan for a feature, they all agreed “24 being compressed into two hours isn’t 24,” with Gordon having a “little light bulb” go off once Fox announced its plan to push into the limited series arena. “The [event series] franchise is less than six months old and we’re getting a who’s who of Hollywood in the door to participate in this,” Reilly said, noting he’ll use the event franchise as a way to bridge the gap between the traditional fall and midseason schedules as the network shifts to program originals year-round.

Well this joyous news! Loving this new trend of just bringing back old shows that everybody likes. Not remakes or a new version. Just literally taking the same actors and the same plot and being like “Welp, people fucking loved this shit. Should have never stopped in the first place. Lets do it again.” So many new shows suck balls. Only a few here and there that really connect. Might as well just stick with what people like.

Love the idea of doing an “Event Series” too. Just make 1 season. Go all out. Don’t pull any punches. Don’t save any material for seasons down the road. Just make the best 12 episodes you possibly can knowing its a wrap after that. I thought thats what shows like The Following or even Revenge should have been. With such insanely dramatic plots theres really no realistic way to expect multiple seasons without losing quality. After ten previous seasons of 24, you want one more with a finale that wraps up all unanswered questions. Comes to a full conclusion. No cliffhangers to tease another season. Give yourself a 12 episode limit and knock it out of the park.