Shortly after 9-11, there was a television series that took viewers on a weekly terrorist-fueled adventure. It was based “in real-time,” covering 24 consecutive hours each season with a cast that has made impressions of all kinds over the last eight years. Taking a “day at a time” had a completely new meaning. Whether they’ve weathered kidnappings, terrorist incursions, caravan ambushes or deadly nerve gas, we’ve all come to love the cast of “24″ for one reason or another.

Fox has released the new trailer for season 8 and after taking a gander, I have to say I am impressed. I’ve been marveling at the cast additions that have sprung up over the last several months and as usual, their shooting schedule is raucous as ever.

Stephen Root, (Eddie from True Blood, Pushing Daisies, King of the Hill) has joined the cast of Fox’s 24.

Root will be playing Ben Prady.  Prady is an officer of the Department of Corrections who’s on the lookout for a missing parolee.  This will be a multi-episodic role for Root will in the upcoming season of 24.

FYI:  On the big screen, he can be seen in the upcoming The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney.

Source:  Hollywood Reporter

After an amazing job hosting the Tony Awards this past June, Neil Patrick Harris was tapped to host The 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

How was he?

Yet again, pretty amazing. It seems as if he elevated the entire production to another level.

When the show first started and Neil came out singing, I have to be honest, I really didn’t enjoy it. I thought that while Neil has an amazing voice, the song just wasn’t anything great. Especially when compared to everything else that would happen during the course of the night.

This year, Bravo’s Television Without Pity, Access Hollywood, TV Guide and MediaWeek joined forces and had a massive fan vote session called the Tubey Awards and they’ve recently announced their Tubey Award winners! The system works where fans vote on different categories of things that are television related and from what I understand, the votes were in the millions.

It’s rather telling, and yet not very surprising, what people are trying to tell the networks. Below are the top category winners from the 2008-09 season that folks voted on for the annual Tubey Awards.

Fox’s 24 has found itself more cast members to get shot at during their multi-episode appearances in ’s upcoming 8th season.

Rami Malek (Night at the Museum) will be playing Marcos, who is a would-be suicide bomber.

Julian Morris (ER) will play a CTU SWAT agent & Hrach Titizian will be the 2nd-in-command for President Hassan, who will be played by Anil Kapoor.

Is it me, or is it getting more interesting as we hear about the new cast and upcoming characters for 24?

Source:  Hollywood Reporter

Today we got news for you on a former Deadwood actor whose getting Lost this season; the gang at 24 are wondering if their eighth day will be their last; Syfy will be re-opening the doors to Warehouse 13 next season; Heroes has a new poster; Apollo plays in the Dollhouse; Star Wars will soon be on TV; and ABC gets room at Clive Barker’s Hotel.

All that, and we bid farewell to a TV News Legend (see above). Let’s get to it:

We here at Screen Rant have so much TV news that we need to break it up into a few articles this week.

With that said, I thought in this extra chapter (or off-shoot of my weekly article), I’d bring some early news and information about Dollhouse, 24 and Lie To Me. I’ve also got some bits of news about the FX network shows Damages & Lawman.  I finally wrap it up with some King of the Hill info, The Office news and a question to you, our faithful readers.

The 24 panel at San Diego Comic-Con had Keifer Sutherland, Howard Gordon, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Katee Sackhoff, Freddie Prinze Jr., Anil Kapoor, Brannon Braga, David Fury, Manny Coto, Evan Katz & Sean Gallery in attendance today.

As you can see it was a large contingent and a great mix of production crew and actors.

Of course Keifer was the man.  When he came out the hall erupted, but Katee Sackhoff drew a close 2nd in the volume of applause.  It was great to see, not to mention Katee looking just spectacular.

There are SMALL SPOILERS within, but I don’t think they’re show killers at all.

Hello from San Diego at Comic-Con.  Today’s bit of weekly TV news is a bit short today but I have managed to include some not so good news about Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan, some good news for 24 star Keifer Sutherland, returning news for Jorja Fox on CSI, and TV ratings from last week.

Jorja Fox Returns to CSI

Jorja Fox’s relationship with CBS and CSI is an off-again, on-again event over the last few years.  It looks like things are “on” again as Fox will be appearing in the upcoming 10th season premiere and an additional few episodes throughout the season.

When inquired if Petersen would return and CBS has no comment.  Grr.

Source:  TV Guide

UpDated 7-2-09

Last year at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, the event was ruled by several big named movies that ranged from youthful vampires to illegal vigilantes.  TV was more a side-note than anything else.

This year at the 2009 Comic-Con, things will be a bit different as television programming seems to have a bigger presence than last year.

For instance, the Warner Brothers Television Group will have 11 different panels for their shows.  That’s a studio best for them.  ABC Studios will have 7 panels.  20th Century Fox will have 9 panels.

Do you think your favorite television show will be represented?

Today in Screen Rant’s weekly TV Wrap Up, we have some great casting news for 24, we’ll be talking about David Carradine’s appearance in Fox’s new show Mental and we also have some Heroes casting news, the possibility that My Name Is Earl may be getting new legs, some news on Ghost Whisperer, The Sarah Connor Chronicles coming to DVD and a bit about Futurama’s, err, future.

We’ll wrap it up with ratings from last week.  This week in the ratings section, I thought I’d try something new and toss in some cable viewer numbers.

24 Casting News

The cast for the upcoming 8th season of 24 is growing ever so slowly, but surely.

Jennifer Westfeldt has been cast in the recurring role of an ambitious journalist named Meredith Reed.

This ambitious journalist has connections to a Middle East leader who is in the U.S. on a peacemaking mission, named Arman Hashemi.  Hashemi will be played by Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire).

Normally, I come away from a show with a critical eye towards issues or angles that distract me from the main plot, yet this seventh season of 24 and its finale came at us with a new sense of energy, focus and desperation that I don’t remember feeling before. I also found myself hating not one, but two characters from the show while being shown a side of Jack Bauer that I was not used to seeing.  That was unique and somewhat disturbing.

This year we had no CTU and Jack had to work as a cooperative consultant for the FBI (imagine a consultant that’s one of the most dangerous men alive!).  We did get to see some of our CTU favorites but in unique scenarios.

You’ll see why after the break, where the SPOILERS are hiding.  You’ve been warned.

It’s Thursday and I hope that April 15th didn’t treat you too harshly yesterday. Whether it did or not, I’m still here to razz or rant on some stuff that’s happening in and around the tube.

Stargate Universe

As if this is a surprise to Stargate fans, but Stargate Universe will be having a few notable guest stars in the form of a few veterans reprising their Stargate SG-1 roles.

Yep, you read that right.

Due to technical difficulties beyond my control, the digital dog ate my homework. Or, I had to write this article twice! The digital dog just sounds more light-hearted than what the second line implies. Enough about my woes with technological gremlins.

There wasn’t a ton of news to report or snark on this week, so I had to dig up enough to make this yet another interesting read. Well, at least I think it is! I do have a few snippets that might be spoilers for The Office (Guest appearance) and Lost (Possible finale shoot notes).

Shall we get on with it?

Hello Screen Rant readers. There isn’t a lot of TV stuff going on, but I did manage to dig up some noise on a few things. Namely some info on the upcoming Caprica DVD, Tin Man, The Mentalist, Dollhouse, Heroes and ER.

Let’s get to it.

So it’s finally really begun again – another riveting season (7) of Fox TV’s 24.

Less than two months ago we were given the “Day 7″ teaser called 24: Redemption, which gave some backstory for what will happen over the next 24 hours (Jack Bauer time). I stated in the comments on that post that it looks like the show has recovered from its “jump the shark” season 6 and seems to be back in fine form.

And tonight’s two hour season premiere continues the “24 is BACK” feeling.

24: Redemption is the prequel to 24: Day 7. It’s also the gift to us, the viewers, for having to wait for the next season of 24 for such a long period of time.

In Redemption we meet a collection of characters as this prequel takes place between the hours of 3 and 5PM.

The 2008 Presidential election is finally behind us and I think it’s time for a little levity after all the anger and angst. I must confess how stunned I am to see so many people reveling in a victory that–if we are being truly honest with ourselves–must be accredited to one man in particular:

That’s right folks, I am referring to former U.S. President, David Palmer.

The cursed writers strike affected a lot of shows last year and is even partly to blame for the cancellation of some of them. Fox’s 24 was not immune to those effects

Before the writers strike occurred, Fox already had their own “issues.” No, not the usual ones (well, maybe the usual ones) – there was discord in the Fox house as to where they were going to film 24… since the original script for season 7 called for shooting in Africa. Africa was deemed too expensive on production costs. <<- Remember that: It – was – too – costly – to – go – to – Africa.

Once they decided not to shoot in Africa, the show underwent a major rewrite. During the rewrite, a new schedule was being looked at – but timing issues and the writers’ strike came down the pike to throw the production yet another curve ball.

After we got robbed of season 7 of 24 because of the writers strike, word has come down that Fox is going to produce a two-hour TV movie that helps bridge the two year gap between seasons 6 and 7 (not to be confused with the rumored theatrical film). All right!

I’m a late bloomer to 24, having started during season 6. I would watch each episode while also watching eps from season 5. Yeah, things got a bit confusing (which terrorist is this? Nukes or chemical weapons?), but I couldn’t stop watching! It was fantastic. By the way, season 5 was some of the best TV I’ve ever seen, and I’m not much of a TV guy.

Though season 6 ended, in my mind, at episode 18 or so, it was still a solid, if uneven, one. I’m gonna start going through the other seasons to catch up.

Anyway, back to the TV movie and season 7.

Click to continue "Is 24 Really Postponed Until 2009?"

My personal opinions have me on the side of the writers in regards to the current WGA writers’ strike situation. The studios have got to be kidding when they cry “we can’t afford it” when it comes to compensating the folks that are the foundation of the TV and movie entertainment business. Yes, the bulk of the issue is “new” digital media includes the streaming of TV shows on the web where perhaps it’s so new that the studios don’t have the economics of the whole thing worked out, but writers should get residuals from this as they do from any other media as far as I’m concerned.

There is no doubt that the current WGA writers’ strike is going to have a big impact on the 2007/2008 televsion season, maybe even bigger than was originally anticipated. Many popular TV series and talk shows have already stopped production, and there are rumors that some series that are supposed to start in January like Lost and 24 may end up getting their premiere dates pushed way back due to this whole thing. 24 may not begin until the strike is over and Lost may end up getting pushed back to 2009.

As has been mentioned here, this also affects movie production since most movies have ongoing script tweaking going on during the process of shooting a film, so there are movies going into production that could end up being that much worse when they’re released.

Which leads me to this thought: Although I support the writers’ side in this conflict, I don’t support all of them.

Click to continue "24 Season 7 Trailer"

Click to continue "24 Season Seven Resurrects Dead Character"

Cherry Jones (The Village) has been cast as a female U.S. President in the next season of 24. An interesting development to be sure, but I’m hoping they get radical with the entire story.

And I pray that doesn’t include the rumored/reported “Jack-is-a-villain” stuff I’m hearing. Vigilante? Sure, but not a villain. So what can they do?

I have only seen the excellent season 5 of 24 and the “started-great-but-ended-weird” season 6 (I haven’t finished it yet because it got so strange by hour 18 or 19), but I feel like if the show can lose the Los Angeles surroundings for a completely different locale, it would help.

Kiefer Sutherland has hinted that Jack Bauer might lose his good guy status for the next season of 24.

After attending the Princess Diana Memorial Concert, Sutherland told The Sun: “Bauer will be his own boss… he’s going to be on his own.” (Which to this author, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to turn bad, just going out on a limb, again..)

Is this some twist on the usual scenario where being in the field, he’s his own boss anyway?

Tivo the show and we didn’t get around to finishing it until earlier this month, so I figured that by that time it was too late to write about the end of the season.

There’s been a lot of press about the fact that Season 6 was not up to the standard of previous seasons and that 24 may have finally “jumped the shark”.

I can’t say that I completely disagree with that assessment.

I’m going to nitpick. It’s been a while, so I figure I’m due.

I’ve been a huge fan of Fox’s 24 since it’s first season. It was a very cool concept, showing events in real-time, one hour per week, for a total of 24 episodes to comprise an entire day. I absolutely loved the clock that appeared at the end of every commercial break, indicating how far along we were in the episode and how long we had left in minutes until the inevitable nail-biting cliff hanger. And like clockwork, every episode ended at the top of the hour with the clock going to :00 just as the clock in my kitchen did.

It’s been the same for five seasons, but for season six of 24 things are different.

Click to continue "24 Season Six Premiere"