D.B. Woodside says 24 Season 6 was disappointing

It would probably be a bit difficult at the moment schedule-wise, but do you think you might pop up on 24 again at some point?
This is what I’m telling people; this is what I’m allowed to say. Anybody who watches 24 knows that the characters of 24 constantly kind of go away, maybe for a year, come back, go away, come back – unless they’re dead. So what I can say is that Wayne Palmer does not die. That’s what I can say, is he’s not dead, so we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.

What did you think when you found out you were getting the big promotion to president last season?
You know what, in the beginning I thought that was great. I found out like last April or May. I think that I wish that the writers and the creator had kind of stuck with the character that we had created in the previous two seasons. I thought a little bit like they were almost giving me a new character at the beginning of this year, simply because he was president. I think that they were probably somewhat nervous, and to be candid, it didn’t work. And I think that as writers they know that — as an actor, I sure as hell knew that — and that both of us kind of dug an impossible hole that the writers and myself spent a good part of the year trying to climb out of. I think unfortunately, for most of the season, it was… I don’t think it was bad, I just think it was disappointing. But I do think that the last three episodes that Wayne Palmer was in, before he went down for the final time, they went back to the Wayne Palmer that people know, the Wayne Palmer that people love; the fighter. The guy who’s scrappy. The guy who can be intimidating and is somewhat volatile. I just wish they had started off the season with that guy. I think it would have been a lot more interesting to see what he would have done as president, versus almost like it was a brand new character, and the writing kind of had him being somewhat nervous and unsure of himself. Any true fan of 24 that watched Season 3 or Season 5 knows that Wayne Palmer is not that way. So I think that’s what was a little kind of troublesome for a lot of people this year, on the president side, but we did the best we could.

I loved in Season 5 when you were out on missions with Jack.
That was fantastic, that was fantastic! That was incredible.

The funny thing was you kind of disappeared near the end of Season 5, and I know people were trying to figure it out and making jokes like “Is he sleeping at Buchanan’s house or what?”
That’s funny, because that was actually a simple thing where they wanted to bring me back, and I was already actually contracted to do something else. They wanted to bring me back for the final episode of Season 5.

I imagine it must have been a lot of fun to get to do those action scenes in Season 5.
It was incredible, it was incredible. I mean it’s hard, because last year was such a disappointment for me, because number one, I’m such a fan of the show, and number two, the other two years on the show I had the time of my life. So to go from something that was incredible to something that was just not working and something that was problematic was really frustrating, but that happens sometimes, and you just try to roll with it. And like I said, I personally don’t think it was a disaster, but I do think it was disappointing, and so I think that was hard for all of us. But I think that those guys are going to come out blazing next season and they’re gonna have a great year, and I wish them well.