Conception The idea for the series first came from executive producer
Joel Surnow, who initially had the idea of a TV show with 24 episodes in a season. Each episode would be an hour long, taking place over the course of a single day. He discussed the idea over the phone with producer
Robert Cochran, whose initial response was "Forget it, that's the worst idea I've ever heard, it will never work and it's too hard". They met the next day at the
International House of Pancakes in
Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, to discuss the idea of this action-espionage series that used the format of real time to create dramatic tension with a race against the clock. The episode had a $4 million budget with filming in March 2001. The set of CTU was initially done in a Fox Sports office, with the set reproduced once the series was picked up for the season. The series was supposed to be filmed in
Toronto, but due to the variability of Canadian weather, Los Angeles was chosen as a filming location. The pilot of the series was well received by critics, and was signed on for an initial thirteen episodes. Production began in July 2001, and the premiere was planned for October 30, but because of the
September 11 attacks, delayed until November 6. After the first three episodes, Fox greenlit the remaining filmed 11 episodes and following
Kiefer Sutherland's
Golden Globe win, Fox ordered the second half of the season.
Design Although not the first to do so,
24 embraced the concept of
real time. This idea started when producer Joel Surnow thought of the idea of doing "24 episodes in a season, with each episode lasting an hour". They decided that the idea of real time had to make the show a "race against the clock". The story time correlates with elapsed viewing time if episodes are broadcast with commercial breaks of set duration inserted at the points prescribed by the episode.
Setting The first six seasons of the show are mostly based in Los Angeles and nearby California locations—both real and fictional. the TV film
Redemption, filmed in
South Africa, is mainly set in the fictional African nation of Sangala, and the ninth season
Live Another Day is set in
London. The main setting of the show is the fictional Counter Terrorist Unit. Its office consists of two main departments: Field Operations, which involves confronting and apprehending suspects, and Communications, which gathers intelligence and assists those that work in Field Operations. CTU offices are established in various cities with these units reporting to "Divisions", and Divisions reporting to the "District". While CTU itself is a fictional agency, several entities with similar names or duties, like the
National Counterterrorism Center, have emerged since the show's debut on television. The set of CTU was initially filmed in a Fox Sports office, with the set recreated in a studio in Woodland Hills after the series was picked up. The same set was used for the first three seasons, but production moved to an old pencil factory in
Chatsworth before the start of the fourth season and the CTU set was redesigned. It was redesigned again before the start of the eighth season. Other sets were also constructed here, such as
Charles Logan's presidential retreat shown in seasons five and six, and the
White House bunker shown in seasons four and six. however, in January 2008, producer
Howard Gordon confirmed that accounting for the passage of various presidential administrations, the
seventh season would be set in 2017.
Series conclusion On March 26, 2010, a statement was issued from
Fox that explained that season eight would conclude the original series.
Kiefer Sutherland gave a statement: Executive producer and showrunner
Howard Gordon was also a part of the decision. He was quoted saying: Peter Rice, Chairman of Entertainment at Fox Networks Group said, "
24 is so much more than just a TV show – it has redefined the drama genre and created one of the most admired action icons in television history." Kevin Reilly, President of Entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Company added, "We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series and will be forever thankful to Kiefer, the producers, the cast and crew for everything they've put into
24 over the years. It's truly been an amazing and unforgettable eight days. The final episode of
season 8 aired on May 24, 2010. Similar to the 1997 film,
Air Force One,
24 featured the president's personal jumbo-jet (
Air Force One). Air Force One was featured in
24 seasons 2 and 4.
Air Force Two (carrying the Vice President but not the President) was featured in season 6. Several actors featured in
24, such as
Xander Berkeley,
Glenn Morshower,
Wendy Crewson,
Timothy Carhart,
Jürgen Prochnow,
Tom Everett and
Spencer Garrett also appeared in the film
Air Force One. The
25th amendment, which deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President and responding to presidential disabilities, was also a shared theme between the film and the television series.
24 used the same Air Force One set from another television series,
The West Wing.
Feature film development A feature film adaptation of
24 was originally planned for the hiatus between the sixth and seventh seasons. Series co-creators
Joel Surnow and
Robert Cochran were set to write the script with showrunner
Howard Gordon working on story. Filming was going to take place in London,
Prague, and
Morocco. Plans for the film were later put on hold.
Kiefer Sutherland explained, "It's impossible to ask writers to work on the show and then come up with an amazing film we can shoot in the break between seasons." It was later decided that the film would begin after the conclusion of the eighth and final season. It was to be set and shot on-location in Europe. Surnow, Cochran, Gordon, and Sutherland were going to be executive producers on the film, and
Billy Ray was going to write the screenplay. Shooting was planned to start in late 2010 or early 2011. Sutherland described the film production as "exciting" because, "It's going to be a two-hour representation of a 24 hour day, so we were not going to be restrained by the real time aspect of the TV show." In June 2010, it was reported that plans were made to create a film titled
Die Hard 24/7, which would serve as a
crossover between
24 and the
Die Hard franchise, with Sutherland to reprise his role as Jack Bauer alongside
Bruce Willis'
John McClane. However, these plans never came to fruition, with the studio instead opting to create the film
A Good Day to Die Hard. In November 2010, executive producer Gordon revealed that a "work in progress" screenplay was being read by Fox, but that the film did not yet have a green-light or fixed schedule. In December 2010, Gordon revealed that Fox turned down the script by Ray, stating, "It wasn't strong enough or compelling enough". By that time, Gordon was no longer involved with the project, but stated that director
Tony Scott would pitch an idea to Sutherland, an involvement ending with Scott's death in August 2012. Executive producer
Brian Grazer tweeted in April 2011 that the film was planned for a 2012 release. At the 2011
Television Critics Association press tour, former showrunner Gordon stated that "conversations are definitely happening" about the film, and that they are just looking for the right script before moving forward. In September 2011, Sutherland indicated the script was almost complete. After some small script alterations by screenwriter
Mark Bomback, filming was announced to begin in spring 2012, after Sutherland became available in April. In March 2012, 20th Century Fox stopped production before filming could begin. Budgetary issues remained unresolved and Sutherland's narrow time frame for filming were cited as reasons for halting production. However, in July 2012, Sutherland assured the film was still in plans and that they would begin filming in summer 2013. The film was eventually suspended in May 2013 after the announcement that the show would return as a limited series. Sutherland said in January 2014 that "the film is an ongoing situation." After
Live Another Day received highly positive reception, a new idea for the feature film surfaced in September 2014, spearheaded by Grazer. In January 2016, Sutherland stated that he has "no idea if the
24 movie will ever happen, or Jack Bauer might end up finding his way into an episode one day and clarifying all of that, or ending all of that." This was in reference to concluding his character's
story arc in a future iteration of the franchise. In July 2024, it was reported that a
24 feature film was in early development at
20th Century Studios and
Imagine Entertainment. In November 2025,
Imagine Entertainment president
Justin Wilkes said there were plans to continue
24 with Jack Bauer by way of a theatrical film or follow-up television series.
Live Another Day In May 2013,
Deadline Hollywood first reported that Fox was considering a limited-run "event series" for
24 based on a concept by
Howard Gordon, after failed efforts to produce the
24 feature film and the cancellation of
Kiefer Sutherland's series
Touch. The following week, Fox officially announced
24: Live Another Day, a limited-run series of twelve episodes that would feature the return of
Jack Bauer. Fox CEO Kevin Reilly said that the series would essentially represent the twelve "most important" hours of a typical
24 season, with jumps forward between hours as needed. As with the rest of Fox's push into event programming, the production was said to have "a big scope and top talent and top marketing budgets." In June 2013, it was announced that
Jon Cassar was signed to executive produce and direct multiple episodes of
Live Another Day, including the first two. Executive producers and writers
Robert Cochran,
Manny Coto and
Evan Katz were also announced to return
Mary Lynn Rajskub was announced as the second official cast member in August 2013, reprising her role as
Chloe O'Brian. In October 2013, it was confirmed that
Kim Raver and
William Devane would reprise their roles as
Audrey Raines and James Heller, respectively. New actors joining the cast included
Michael Wincott as Adrian Cross, an infamous hacker;
Gbenga Akinnagbe and
Giles Matthey as CIA agents Erik Ritter and Jordan Reed, respectively;
Benjamin Bratt as Steve Navarro, the head of CIA operations tracking Jack Bauer in London;
Yvonne Strahovski as Kate Morgan, a "brilliant but impulsive CIA field operative in London"; and
Stephen Fry as Alistair Davies, the
British Prime Minister. In October 2013, it was confirmed the series would be set and filmed in London, England.
24: Live Another Day premiered on May 5, 2014, on
Fox. In January 2016, Fox announced it had ordered a
pilot for a spin-off series titled
24: Legacy, which would feature a new cast, with no returning characters except Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard). The series retains the real-time format, but consists of 12 episodes, using a time jump to cover a single day.
Stephen Hopkins, who directed the original
24 pilot and several first-season episodes, directed the
Legacy pilot. Jon Cassar also returned to direct and produce 6 of the 12 episodes.
Corey Hawkins and
Miranda Otto play the two lead characters – Hawkins as Eric Carter, a military hero returning home and Otto as Rebecca Ingram, a former head of CTU. The pilot was officially ordered to series in April 2016 and premiered on February 5, 2017, immediately after
Super Bowl LI.
Other spin-offs In July 2018, it was announced that Fox was in the early stages of developing a prequel series that would tell the origin story about
Jack Bauer in his early days. Original creators
Joel Surnow and
Robert Cochran and executive producer
Howard Gordon were set to write the script with. In August 2018, it was announced that Fox was also developing another potential spin-off, which would be a
legal thriller. In February 2019, Fox passed on the legal thriller, but were continuing to develop the prequel. In January 2020, Fox confirmed that they had scrapped the potential prequel series as well. In September 2021,
Deadline Hollywood reported that Fox was in "active creative talks" to bring the franchise back in a new form. Kiefer Sutherland later denied in January 2022 that such conversations were taking place, although he confirmed that he had been discussing the potential for future seasons of the show with
Howard Gordon, the series' showrunner, and that he supports an idea of a series focusing on an entirely new cast tasked with rescuing Jack Bauer from a Russian prison. He later went on to tell
Variety in April 2022 that he is open to new seasons of the show, as he views Jack Bauer's story as "unresolved".
Other media A significant amount of additional media relating to the series has been created, including Internet-distributed spin-off series such as
The Rookie and
24: Conspiracy, as well as a
video game. Other media include action figures of some of the main characters, soundtracks from both the series and the video game, and a number of novels covering different events not covered in the series. Additionally, a number of in-universe books were created, as well as behind the scenes books containing information on how the series was created. ==Influence and reception==