A new wave of stories have been appeared regarding the January ’09 start for Day 7, this time citing Fox directly as the source. You can now mark the month in your calendar.
Update: Some good suggestions as to reasons why in the comments by “Serial Rocker”. I thought I would put them in the main post for everyone to see.
Regarding why 24 can’t simply be run later than normal, there are several factors. The first is the fear that a show running into the summer will lose viewers as the networks seem to hold to the opinion, rightly or wrongly, that people watch less television during the summer months. That is one of the main reasons why a television “season” covers the months that it does.
This is the basic reason why Fox wouldn’t want to simply start airing Day 7 as soon as it could air all 24 episodes in one run. Because atleast the tail end would run into the summer season.
Also, there is the fact that many of the cast and crew are only contracted to a show for certain times of the year. I’ve no idea if this is the case for 24 but it is quite possible that Kiefer and the other actors may be contracted to other projects after a certain point, making them unavailable for involvement in the show should it run later than planned.
Another good point, although I believe given the nature of the strike, every production schedule is being moved around right now, and so for the key actors ’24’ would have been there priority. But I can certaintly see it as a serious problem for recurring guest stars, who may have been unsure exactly how many episodes they would be wanted for anyway. I think either way we may notice a few characters and actors written out after episode 8.
Finally, and this is a purely speculative point that occured to me and may or may not be the case, given the nature of 24’s format, should the “night” hours of the show run through the middle or late into the season (which appears to be the case from the litle I have seen of the early episodes) then filming the outside locations during the months of the year when it is dark for only a short time of the night would probably require a hell of a lot of late nights and difficult shoots. Not something they would want to have to worry about given all the other issues of getting back into production.
This I think is the best point, it’s somewhat of an open fact about 24’s production schedule that it’s easier to shoot the nightime episodes during the winter and the daytime episodes during the summer. An increased production time eases these concerns.
This news is very disturbing. I cannot understand why Season 7 cannot just start being aired on 1st March and let it run into July/August.
I cannot understand why we have to wait until January and I just hope this does not effect the plans for Season 8, 9 etc.
What depressing news.
I have to admit, That sucks. But what can you do? At least now they’ve got enough time to make the day 7 as good as it can be. No JB for 10 months. Thank god for dvds.
@ross barker:
I don’t think there will be a seaon 9, quite honestly. and as for season 8 that will very much depend on how s7 fairs. that has openly been said.
imo, this is a very big gamble on fox’s part. either people will forget about 24 and once it starts airing it will either acquire a whole new audience with the old bunch partly staying and partly not or people will just say oh forget about it already. there’s enough other shows to fill the void.
one thing that hasn’t changed is that either s7 will be the best ever – or the show’s death. now the decision has simply been delayed.
“one thing that hasn’t changed is that either s7 will be the best ever – or the show’s death. now the decision has simply been delayed.”
That is VERY true i agree with you 100%.
Regarding why 24 can’t simply be run later than normal, there are several factors. The first is the fear that a show running into the summer will lose viewers as the networks seem to hold to the opinion, rightly or wrongly, that people watch less television during the summer months. That is one of the main reasons why a television “season” covers the months that it does.
Also, there is the fact that many of the cast and crew are only contracted to a show for certain times of the year. I’ve no idea if this is the case for 24 but it is quite possible that Kiefer and the other actors may be contracted to other projects after a certain point, making them unavailable for involvement in the show should it run later than planned.
Finally, and this is a purely speculative point that occured to me and may or may not be the case, given the nature of 24’s format, should the “night” hours of the show run through the middle or late into the season (which appears to be the case from the litle I have seen of the early episodes) then filming the outside locations during the months of the year when it is dark for only a short time of the night would probably require a hell of a lot of late nights and difficult shoots. Not something they would want to have to worry about given all the other issues of getting back into production.
Regarding the idea that 24’s 7th season will decide whether or not there will be an 8th, I’d say that goes without saying. That’s pretty much true for every show, every year though.
I tend to think that 24 has a fairly loyal following by now and the plan to dely the season by a year won’t have a negative effect. A lot depends on how Fox promote the return next year and I have no doubt that they still have a lot of faith in the show to do the business.
Season 9 though? Definite doubts but you never know. Probably way too soon to be worrying about that, given that we would be talking the 2010/11 television season.
Hey, I made the front page of the site with my first post here! Not bad! 🙂
Hardy24 – “I think either way we may notice a few characters and actors written out after episode 8.”
Yeah, I’m a little concerned about that as well. I’d hate to see good characters wasted because the guest actors involved were not able to return to the roles when production resumes due to other commitments. For me, that is the only real downside to the delay.
Y’know, that and no new 24 for a whole year! 😉
I am absoloutely gutted with this heartbreaking news. I completely disagree with Foxs reasoning about the summertime viewing figures.
There are more than enough loyal fans worldwide waiting for D7 to be released. After all, casual viewers who misss an episode find it very hard to catch up again and then tend not to watch further episodes. Much like Lost (which I dont watch) it is just too hard to catch up on if you missed out.
Overall D6 was sadly poor, and the writers really had to pull their socks up, not suspend the series FOR A FULL YEAR,
Although I will watch D7 I feel we have all seen the best of 24, also I am very apprehensive about the idea of a movie. I really dont want to see my favourite show get the Hollywood treatment. This will proably result in a rubbish storyline, and a ridiculous happy ending. In short, a movie aimed at the lowest common denominator to ensure as many bums on seats as possible.
Still I would dearly love to be proved wrong.
Far be it from me to take the side of the ever-axe-ready networks, circle, but the truth is that there is plenty of evidence that people acually do watch less television during summer months so I can see why Fox aren’t going to force 24, a show they still consider an important part of it’s primetime season, into a schedule that simply won’t use it to the best effect. Truthfully, I would have made the exact same choice.
If what you say is true that the show has more than enough loyal fans around the world, and I totally agree with that, then they will be loyal enough to wait this out. What really matters is that the season 7 we get when it returns lives up to the wait and blows us away, and I believe that it will.
Ironically, your statement above, that “we have all seen the best of 24” is probably a lot more harmful than any year long wait could be. I have to disagree that we have seen the best of the show because for five seasons the show continued to improve and even though the sixth season did lack something of the usual 24 brilliance I certainly don’t see that as a sign that the best has already been seen. Every show has a season that doesn’t quite work. People condemned Lost’s second year (although I have to say that I loved it) but the third and current fourth seasons have been pure brilliance. 24 is no different.
My opinion? Show some of that loyalty you speak of and show Fox that you are looking forward to the new season, rather than doubting it’s quality before you have had a chance to judge. 😉
On where 24 is on it’s cycle of good/bad/indifferent seasons. You’ll never truly reach a consensus about what was a good season and what was a bad season, or if the show has slowly been getting worse, or slowly been getting better.
On your example of Lost, that some people thought the second season wasn’t that great, I know a lot of people who thought the second was good, and that most of the third was poor.
It’s all a matter of judgement.
Hardy24 – “On where 24 is on it’s cycle of good/bad/indifferent seasons. You’ll never truly reach a consensus about what was a good season and what was a bad season…”
True enough, everyone has their favourite and least favourite seasons of any given show they watch, regardless of the overall quality. That said, I don’t remember a previous season of 24 being quite as disliked as season 6 by as large a part of the fanbase. I think it’s fair to say that it has received a hell of a lot more criticism than any year before.
Hardy24 – “On your example of Lost, that some people thought the second season wasn’t that great, I know a lot of people who thought the second was good, and that most of the third was poor.
It’s all a matter of judgement.”
Again, very true. For me, I consider the second season to be essential to the growth of the characters that we see in the current episodes in so many ways that maybe weren’t obvious as the second season first played out. The common complaints that it dragged out and was full of filler episodes don’t really work for me. The only part of the show that has ever truly dragged was the mini-season at the start of season 3, and even that had it’s highlights.
So, yep, all a matter of judgement and individual opinion, which was kinda my point that circle should at least wait to see season seven of 24 before he starts to judge it, because truly good shows have a habit of coming back to brilliance just as the masses start to assume the worst.
Well Serial Rocker, don’t confuse my pessimism with lack of loyalty. I will watch every episode of D7(obsessively).
However I am writing from a European point of view where TV-wise scheduling works a little differently. Also I now live in Australia and it is Summer now when 24 should have started so go figure.
In reality the Olympics and Euro 2008 (soccer) would clash with the tv schedule if it was released during Northern Hemisphere Summertime.
I would really love to be blown away by D7 and dearly hope I am proved absoloutely wrong. I guess I dont think I am doing any harm posting negative opinions on this site as surely we are all hard-core fans.
Anyway there is no way could I do anywhere near the damage as the much vaunted WGA.
Dammit, we are all running out of time…………..
Good to know that you will be sticking with the show, circle, and I hope you don’t think my response to you before was a personal attack on you, just for the sake of it. Clearly it’s not the case with what you said but I see so many former fans of shows that I love suddenly decide that they no longer enjoy the show and then take it upon themselves to go around the fan sites they know and do their best to get others to drop the show too, as if they want it off the air now that they are done with it. If they no longer enjoy show “x” then fair enough, but why feel the need to go around trying to sway other people to feel the way they do? Why not just stop watching and do something they find more enjoyable?
Again, obviously that isn’t what you are doing but it’s a practice that really annoys me when I see it so I tend to try balance out comments I disagree with, just to level out the opinions.
I should point out, I’m from the UK myself so I’m also more used to series being run all the year round, rather than in the US style “seasons” and I don’t entirely agree with the networks that people wouldn’t start watching their favourite shows during the summer, if that was when they were broadcast. The problem they have is that the season system has been in place for so long that they obviously fear changing what they see as a workable practice. That said, there does seem to be some change going on regarding this very subject at the moment, so perhaps we aren’t far away from seeing the possibility of a 24 summer run.