Kiefer Sutherland on Letterman: 24 Live Another Day is a “one-off”

Kiefer Sutherland was interviewed by David Letterman and claimed that 24: Live Another Day is simply a one-off event series meant to close out the show.

(This is just the 24-related part. You can watch the full interview here.)

Transcript

Letterman: 24: Live Another Day, a reprise, is it just twelve episodes, that’s what this is?
Sutherland: Yes
Letterman: So we’re not relaunching a series exactly?
Sutherland: No, it’s kind of a.. it’s a one-off deal. It’s our way of kinda closing it. The twelve episodes represent a twenty-four hour day. It’s a very concentrated version of “24”.
Letterman: Excited to have done this?
Sutherland: It’s been fantastic.
Letterman: And then there will be no more, right? At least on TV…
Sutherland: Yes, yeah. It’s been fantastic, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you I was incredibly nervous going up to it. But once we started shooting it’s been an amazing experience. We’ve been shooting it in England and that has been amazing as well.


Executive producer Manny Coto made similar comments on a conference call with the media a few days ago, saying that “We are treating this season as a one-time miniseries event. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The ending could be the end of ’24′ for good if you look at it that way.”

Series star Mary Lynn Rajskub seems to have a more positive outlook. She was recently quoted as saying “I would be very shocked if they didn’t keep going based on the experience of making [Live Another Day] and the excitement for the show.”

33 Comments

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Hm that sucks. I guess it’ll have to end one of two ways……….

If it’s successful I think we will get more

Gerry Mander
May 1, 2014 at 2:26 am
Kiefer didn’t really directly answer Letterman’s question whether there will be more after this new one because he simply doesn’t know at present, neither do the writers/producers of the show (according to Manny Coto as of last Thursday), and neither will we until the summer when FOX sees the overall ratings trajectory and the general audience response, and then consult with HoGo, Kiefer and co to see if they’re up for another go-around, and if they are, don’t be surprised if it airs next May… and I’m serious about that; other than the fact that despite what Kevin Reilly stated last year, it’s doubtful FOX would want a full two years to elapse before another ’24’ limited series hits screens should the new one prove a resounding success, if the writers themselves feel creatively energized coming out of ‘Live Another Day’, and that the wind is in their sails (so to speak), they may want to seize the momentum and move straight on to a new season without missing a beat!

Oh I so hope you’re right about that! It all makes perfect sense.

I hope you ‘ re right Gerry, I was so depressed to hear Kiefer and disapointed too: he only did promo for his daughter and said nothing on 24 except this sad new

I’m definitely getting the impression that their gonna kill him off. Has been lots of talk about “closure” from Jon Cassar etc He’ll probably die saving the life of Audrey or something

WouldntYouLikeToKnow
May 1, 2014 at 4:26 am
That awkward moment at about 4 to 7 seconds in when Kiefer’s eyes search the desk for a glass of water and he then looks behind him but there is no water.

As his character in MGSV would say “LIQUIIIIIID!”

He cant die. seeing that the title is Live another Day.

WouldntYouLikeToKnow
May 1, 2014 at 5:03 am
You could interpret that as meaning that he lives for ONLY another day. As in this season.

I agree, but try to be more positive about it: live another day – then we’ll see.

Gerry Mander
May 1, 2014 at 9:18 pm
“… this one last day of Jack Bauer’s life…” as spoken by Manny Coto recently, kinda gives that title a whole new meaning and context if that proves to be the case… ‘Live Another Day’ as in Jack has another day to live, maybe the writers have been hiding the inevitable in plain sight all along!

And what is ” a kind of closing it” ? Season 8 was a closing with the clock going to 0 , is not that a closing ?! I love Kiefer but I’m really piss off by this interview !

He said there will be no more but i read an interview with some writers and producers of the show and they all were saying that they would go on the show if people like it. So now Kiefer says there’ll be no more, i’m confused i hope it’ll go on, it’s a great show.

Jack Bauer died twice and lived to tell about it. Keep it that way.

On a positive note, The Detroit News gave the LAD premiere a B+. It sounds like Michelle Fairley’s role in the first two is small, but her character is going to be great as the season goes on:

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2014/apr/30/tv-review-the-clock-is-ticking—-a-thankfully/#axzz30Sw3Y1IB

You know, I really am okay with this being the one and only encore for ’24’. I’m not sure how you can adequately tie up Jack’s story anymore, but I’m content with the idea that he can bow out with dignity after four years of being strung along about ill-fated movie plans.

After all of the disappointment / frustrations that both Gordon and Kiefer had about getting approval for the movie, I’m hoping all of the skepticism from him and the producers about doing a follow-up season is nothing more than keeping a level, non-committal perspective that errs on the side of caution.

If it was a pre-meditated plan all along by the actors, writers and producers to revive the series only to make it the definitive swan song, then I would have rather let the way they ended S8 be the final word on ’24’. To come back intentionally 4 years later, build on all of the hype and capitalize on the longings of the series loyal fans only to pull the plug again would be cruel and unusual treatment of the show’s fans that Keifer speaks so adoringly of.

To elaborate, it’s possible also that when FOX greenlighted this current revival of the series, it was strict instructions to the entire team that the network was not promising anything beyond the 12 episodes – and that they didn’t want any public whining that casts blame on the network. As we all can recall, the frequent media reports / interviews that Kiefer, Gordon and others gave after S8 ended and in reference to the movie were sometimes polite jabs of frustration over not moving forward with the movie. I wouldn’t be surprised if the FOX execs don’t want Kiefer, Gordon, Cassar, etc. saying in interviews that they want to continue but the network is to blame if it doesn’t.

Why even start the show back up if your just going to destroy any hope of a great show returning.

You don’t fucking get it…….They wanted proper closure, they had a good idea for a story, and had high hopes for good ratings, they did not get that, ratings are a huge embarrassment, but the main goal was proper closure for 24. THAT was the whole deal. They didn’t destroy anything, they were always open to continuing, even without the main character, Jack……pending ratings…….But now that notion is out the fucking door, ratings in the key demo are horrible, no way FOX execs will want a new 24 mini event or not, it would be a ratings suicide.

They got rejected for movie, and they won’t get any renewal from FOX, nor do they themselves have any plans to continue including the main actor saying he wants to stop given his age and feeling too old for the role.

IF any remote possibility of a 24, it will be without “Jack Bauer” as a main character,

2 words.

RATINGS SUICIDE.

So are you still not convinced 24 will end for good this time?

The reason they kept Season 8 “open” was because of their plans for a MOVIE…..

MOVIE was a no go, so now they came back to “CLOSE” the show. And yes, I do think he will be killed,
and make the ultimate sacrifice (for real this time) to save Audrey, I think the casket we see is his……

What Chlojack said………….

Kiefer Sutherland doesn’t even know the answer to half the stuff on this quiz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPYdHEsxAgQ

And he has said he’s “never watched an episode of 24” even though he spoke over a running episode of it for an additional feature in a box set.

So Kiefer isn’t exactly what I would call a reliable source. He likes repeating himself in all these interviews too… which for us makes it boring.

Let me re-phrase that… I didn’t mean “a reliable source”, I meant that there are people in a better position than him to answer these types of questions. Not sure why I used that phrase.

After watching the interview, and how Letterman set the question up, I got the impression that Kiefer was also playing coy for bargaining power – as in, he’s not going to tip his hand about how much he loves and wants to continue and let FOX low-ball him. Since the movie (and the huge box office salary Kiefer could have commanded) got bypassed, I wonder if Kiefer is willing to pretend the series won’t go on with expectation that the likely ratings bonanza the show’s return will have leads to FOX crawling to Gordon and Kiefer with huge monetary offers to do another 12-episode arc next season.

And, if they really want to end the run once and for all, wouldn’t it sound better and be more fitting to claim the show had a 10-season run (9 seasons seems such an odd number)?

Why does 9 sound odd? I’ve never understood doing more seasons simply to round things off to the next impressive number. It’s this philosophy that has utterly ruined the Simpsons. “Well, we’ve been renewed for Season 26 so we might as well keep going until Season 30”. It’s ridiculous.

Don’t know if they will be making more 24 after LAD ends. But I know one thing: if they’d had written the final closure on this 12th episode, they would be promoting it from the beginning as the series definitive CLOSURE. That would be the best and perfect weapon for ratings.

Besides, if they had in mind killing Jack, or simply put an end to the series, all the crew must know about it, so there’s no sense on Mary Lynn’s words about more 24 coming after LAD.

I think they just don’t have nothing in mind, so let time and ratings speak for themselves. So I bet that there’s NO WAY they will be killing Jack :)

I watched the Letterman interview also and immediately got the feeling that after taking all that time to talk about his daughter on “Veep”, Letterman caught him off guard asking about the future of his show. I thought Kiefer answered from the heart without thinking. It was so quick. “No, it’s kind of a.. it’s a one-off deal. It’s our way of kinda closing it.” Then when Dave followed up asking him about the potential of a movie, Kiefer, realizing his character was toast, just said: “Yes, yeah. It’s been fantastic”.

I believe they will kill off Jack saving someone like Chloe or Audrey, but the producers will set up a new female version of Jack with Yvonne Strahovski. Her character is described as someone who has been recently dismissed and is unhappy with the agency due to the death of her “traitorous” spouse. Didn’t Jack’s wife get killed in year 1 or 2?? Sounds like a set up to me!!

I watched the Letterman interview also and immediately got the feeling that after taking all that time to talk about his daughter on “Veep”, Letterman caught him off guard asking about the future of his show. I thought Kiefer answered from the heart without thinking. It was so quick. “No, it’s kind of a.. it’s a one-off deal. It’s our way of kinda closing it.” Then when Dave followed up asking him about the potential of a movie, Kiefer, realizing his character was toast, just said: “Yes, yeah. It’s been fantastic”.

I believe they will kill off Jack saving someone like Chloe or Audrey, but the producers will set up a new female version of Jack with Yvonne Strahovski, who’s character is described as someone who has been recently dismissed and is unhappy with the agency due to the death of her “traitorous” spouse. Didn’t Jack’s wife get killed in year 1 or 2?? Sounds like a set up to me!!

Kiefer went in fully expecting Letterman to bring up 24 at some point or another. There’s no way he would have been ‘caught off guard’.

I think they’re still hoping for movies with Live Another Day as the final season. I say screw feature-films and stick with mini-series if they have more to tell.

I LOVE 24 ! ! ! ! Please bring MORE ! One of the BEST shows EVER!!!!!

I will say its been great having another series and i have loved every second of it although i think i liked the series 8 “end forever” over the series 9 “end forever” if you know what i mean. I dont think they will stop 24. They must have it continuing whether Jack is tortured in moscow, russian. Or if he is being forced to work for them. I dont know and i wanna find out! Come on guys. Give us another one!

Kyle Diamond Jones
July 31, 2014 at 10:08 am
I like the idea of him being forced to work for the Russians lol. If they can pull it off it’ll be amazing