Kiefer Sutherland NPR interview: the end of 24?

By 24 Spoilers , May 3rd, 2014  ·  27 comments

Kiefer Sutherland at the 24: Live Another Day Screening
Kiefer Sutherland at the 24: Live Another Day Screening

Jack Bauer is back and fighting terrorism in Europe. Can he save the day again? NPR’s Scott Simon speaks with Kiefer Sutherland about bringing Bauer back for a new season of “24.”

When asked whether this will be the final season, Kiefer replied: “I believe so yeah, I really do. But I thought that when we finished the eighth season. So I don’t really wanna be that affirmiateve in the answer. But my instinct is yeah, this is it.”

Source NPR

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27 Comments

Comments Closed
24Nathan
May 3, 2014 at 8:47 pm
It is so sickening to always hear these stupid questions: “Does Jack Bauer go to the bathroom?” and “How do you always have a working phone?” They were barely funny the first time, not the 935,285,276,102,496,276th time.

XAM
May 3, 2014 at 8:55 pm
He should’ve replied “Jack takes a shit when thinking about your face”.

TJ
May 3, 2014 at 8:57 pm
All of the enthusiasm and excitement of the series coming back after a 4-year hiatus is getting killed by Keifer’s repeated interviews strongly implying this 12-episode is a one-shot swan song. If he is doubtful, fine, keep it to himself at least until the 12 episodes have aired and the ratings have been evaluated. If the show doesn’t do as well as expected or Kiefer/Gordon/Cassar don’t want to continue, fine – we’ll have to accept it. But I hate reading Kiefer’s pessimism about going past this new season before we’ve even seen the 1st episode.

Gerry Mander
May 3, 2014 at 9:10 pm
TJ dude, Kiefer is being asked whether this is the last ’24’ as opposed to volunteering the information himself… what can he say when he doesn’t know himself, he’s put on the spot in that circumstance! If Kiefer stated they want to do another one and hopefully will, some would accuse them of being presumptious, they just can’t win with some people…

TJ
May 4, 2014 at 1:24 am
Kiefer should only comment on what he does know: if he would like to do another season or not. That’s a preference. If the decision on whether the series continues is in others’ hands, I’d rather Kiefer stop casting such a negative light on things and just say nothing either way. It’s becoming a killjoy going into the new season – I feel like I’ll be watching each episode with this sense it’s counting down to the very end, just like watching someone you love die slowly.

Gerry Mander
May 4, 2014 at 1:53 am
Fair enough, good sir, but think of it this way; for the first time in ’24’s history, there is no guaranteed continuation after this new series, there is no contracted next season, no planned feature film, no reason whatsoever this could not be Jack’s very last day… we don’t know if he’ll make it out alive this time, and that’s actually pretty exciting!

Should this prove to be Jack’s last stand, I’ll be thoroughly happy and satisfied we got a last hurrah if disappointed that it’s over, but if it’s not, we have more Jack Bauer Power Hours to look forward to in 2015 or 2016… either way, I’m good where ’24’ stands right now.

24 Spoilers
May 3, 2014 at 9:35 pm
You just have to take these kinds of comments with a grain of salt.

I don’t think Kiefer is necessarily pessimistic, it’s possible that this is just a clever ploy to negotiate a better contract with Fox if the show were to end up being renewed. Liam Neeson seems to do this with the Taken films – it’s always the “last one” for him until 20th Century Fox gives him a 20 million payday.

And if the show does get poor ratings and isn’t renewed, it’ll appear like the show went out on its own terms rather than being canned.

TJ
May 4, 2014 at 1:26 am
“it’s possible that this is just a clever ploy to negotiate a better contract with Fox if the show were to end up being renewed. Liam Neeson seems to do this with the Taken films – it’s always the “last one” for him until 20th Century Fox gives him a 20 million payday.” –

That was a theory I ran up the flagpole in a different thread – and one I hope is the real explanation for the star of the show sounding so doubtful of a future for the show.

Trevor
May 3, 2014 at 9:15 pm
Kiefer is full of shit.

XAM
May 3, 2014 at 9:28 pm
Because he never goes to the bathroom badaboomTISH!

XAM
May 3, 2014 at 10:52 pm
If this is the best they can do for the “end of 24” then part of me thinks good riddance, but the other is sad that 24 won’t get the swan song it deserves. Thing is with Fox you’re almost guaranteed to never get one.

Great season? You can’t end it here! We want more!
Bad season? Sorry fellas, you’ve got 4 eps now to wrap this whole thing up.

Joshua
May 3, 2014 at 11:24 pm
I don’t buy it yet as I said Ya got kiefer who is saying one thing & the writers are saying another….. The writers don’t sound like they know what they want. There’s a bit of fickleness going on from both. So what he really should say is I dunno cause they really don’t….. While the writers are implying It could be the end or it could not be the end….. So I see fickleness in this then a solid answer……. Neither side seems sure but there more unsure or fickle about what they want to do. & it’s not like this was the first time they all gave this answer. & That includes Kiefer Sutherland.

TomW
May 4, 2014 at 4:29 am
It’s also possible that Kiefer knows that Jack is gonna die at the end of the last episode but he doesn’t want to spoil it so he’s being cagey about whether or not the show’s coming back.

X
May 4, 2014 at 6:38 am
Quit your whining. It’s gotta go sometime. It already ended. Everyone said goodbye. They expected a trilogy of films next , then that didn’t happen, so this miniseries did. Now, its likely the mini-series is the final season with the films ahead.

That’s unfortunate because feature-films will be a gigantic step-down from any version of a series. These people aren’t getting any younger and this mini-series was built as a swan song, a second chance at a goodbye, to live another day.

Catherine
May 4, 2014 at 7:11 am
I love Kiefer but now he’s really pissing me off and I agree with Tj.
Besides, sometimes he says “it’s the end..” sometimes he says “I don’t know..” There is an interview in Variety and I think it would be better if he says that all the time

“here’s so many factors. Right now we’re specifically focused on trying to make these 12 episodes live up to the audience’s expectations. That’s what I’m really focused on. I’ve had a wonderful time doing this, but I’m not in a place to answer that question.”

http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/kiefer-sutherland-qa-24-star-talks-living-with-jack-bauer-12-vs-24-and-binge-viewing-1201170974/

Anyway I hope you’re right, 24 spoilers…

Justin
May 4, 2014 at 7:43 am
Another interview where Kiefer says that he does not know whether this is the last season or not. He said he does not know. Let me bet on this. I really think the season premiere will draw huge ratings, and the following episodes will too. Once Kiefer, Howard, and Fox sees the ratings and how high they are, they will obviously want to do more. They would not have opened this up 4 years later for the fans and then end it again to disappoint the fans. They always talk about how much they love the fans, so I think Kiefer is just erring on the side of caution so he does not get our hopes up in case the ratings are bad. http://www.tvgrapevine.com/interviews/6635-24-live-another-day-kiefer-sutherland-interviewed

Gerry Mander
May 4, 2014 at 8:43 pm
“My bones are creaking. What am I going to do, Jack Bauer in a walker? So, yeah, this is it. For me, it’s done.”

The above quote was from Kiefer himself in a USA Today interview… leaves very little to no room for ambiguity, does it not?

That same interview indicates the writers are having problems with the reduced number of episodes, HoGo saying the time jumps are proving “just too difficult” in stopping the multiple plotlines and picking them up hours later in a credible and convincing way… plus according to the article, the last four episodes aren’t even written yet!

Let’s face it folks, this could really be it, enjoy it while it lasts…

Brad
May 4, 2014 at 9:03 pm
I read that interview. I took ‘written yet’ to mean ‘completed yet’ which is a little different. It’d be damn near a crisis if nothing was written yet given that the eighth episode will be airing in just seven weeks.

Gerry Mander
May 4, 2014 at 9:29 pm
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2014/05/04/24-live-another-day-jack-bauer-returns/8621365/

There’s the link for anyone who wants to read it… read it and weep accordingly.

According to the article, the first eight hours are all in consecutive real-time, meaning the final four hours are going to have to jump a VERY considerable distance to land at 11am the following day. Unless the terrorist threat ends at episode 8 and the remaining four episodes are a much more concentrated Jack-centric affair, concerning his fugitive status and ultimately his future. I don’t want to say I’m getting a bad feeling about this, but this is exactly the problem I feared when I heard that the writers had not mapped out the plot in advance, a problem the ’24’ movie not playing out in real-time would not have faced.

Time will tell…

P.S. I think you’re right about the last four episodes not written yet, I don’t see how they couldn’t be, they wrapped filming on episodes 7 and 8 prior to the Easter recess, so that was likely sloppy journalism on the author’s part, sorry about that.

Gerry Mander
May 4, 2014 at 9:51 pm
P.P.S. I just want to clarify that the above “just too difficult” quote was not from HoGo but was in fact a declarative statement from the author of the USA Today article… he passed an opinion to the readers that was his alone and not anything explicitly stated (if implied) by HoGo himself.

Brad
May 4, 2014 at 9:56 pm
The impression I got from Gordon’s statement was that, while the writing remains challenging, it’s not prohibitively difficult.

TJ
May 4, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Here’s a question to consider: with DVR-programming such an increasing part of how networks view the appeal of their shows, I wonder if ’24’ will have more pull with FOX if the weekly ratings are primarily live watchers as opposed to being recorded on DVRs and viewed later. It’s minutia but the way the viewing ratings are categorized would seem to influence decisions on how popular/successful a show was and whether it should be renewed. If FOX is in a wait-and-see mode on how ’24’ does after a 4-year hiatus and how strong the viewer demand of the fans wanting its return is, they may deem higher live viewer ratings as a better sign than if the ratings of the show primarily come from DVR recordings (suggesting that people aren’t as anxious awaiting each week’s episodes).

Just a thought as I remember some of the intel that came from recent other series that appeared to be popular in ratings but with a disclaimer that most of their viewer ratings were from DVR recordings.

24marathonman
May 4, 2014 at 1:04 pm
Question: This interviewer mentions Jack’s cell phone always working. In the later seasons, did Jack ever have/use a smart phone? I know he used a flip phone and a PDA at times in the earlier seasons. Has he always used a flip phone? I assume a flip phone is a feature phone and not a smart phone.

X
May 5, 2014 at 5:26 am
“And then Howard obviously came to me with this idea for this one last season.”

Ratings will dictate whether those final four hours are truly final or lead to something more.

X
May 5, 2014 at 5:34 am
I love that the first 8 hours are consecutive and the last 4 are likely 12 hours later. It’s a wonderful aftermath and final denouement for the story/series and the character of Jack Bauer.

I truly don’t want a film or film series. I’ve expressed myself over and over about how inferior short motion-picture films are to a deep and detailed character driven arc-exploring masterpiece that is a season.

This mini-series is a perfect final note for the series. I know its highly unlikely because this bitch is going to be monumental in the ratings, but I do love for my stories to have endings, real endings that actually end and not plan to go on and on.

9 seasons is more than enough.

I truly fear that they’ll turn it into some bullshit CSI or Law & Order with multiple spinoffs and a never-ending campaign for more money.

Catherine
May 5, 2014 at 6:54 am
Maybe Jack returns to the States at the end, so 8 hours fly ! (for NYC where live his family) ! so 8 hours jump
And for the last episodes, maybe they wait to see the rating.
Anyway I’ve read Kiefer’s interview and it’s very sad !!

Mj
June 25, 2014 at 6:58 pm
Great interview. I have to be on Kiefer’s side of the argument here; you never know what might happen, so this might be the last season. It was a fun ride. That’s all I can say.