Season 7



Season 7 of 24 premiered in the United States on January 11, 2009 at 8pm on Fox, two years after the previous season began. The premiere was a 2 night, 4 hour event (January 11 and 12 from 8-10pm on FOX/Global). In the UK, the show premiered with two episodes on January 12, with another two the next week. Every subsequent week will have one episode, therefore placing the UK airing exactly one week behind the US.

24: Redemption, a two hour prologue to Season 7, aired on November 23, 2008.

Season overview
In the seventh season (2009), almost four years have passed since the last season and Jack Bauer is on trial in Washington DC for his supposed past crimes. Jack's day takes an unexpected turn when supposedly dead former colleague Tony Almeida returns. Meanwhile, newly elected President Allison Taylor leads the country through difficult times alongside White House Chief of Staff Ethan Kanin and First Gentleman Henry Taylor.

A national security crisis prompts an investigation by a team of FBI agents including Janis Gold, Renee Walker, Larry Moss and Sean Hillinger. Despite the disbandment of the Counter Terrorist Unit, Chloe O'Brian and Bill Buchanan continue working, albeit underground, to help the day's efforts.

24: Redemption
Taking place 42 months after Day 6, 24: Redemption details the Inauguration Day of President Allison Taylor. Meanwhile in Sangala, Africa, Jack Bauer is subpoenaed to appear before a Senate hearing regarding his actions with the Counter Terrorist Unit, but doesn't want to go. He ends up in the middle of a military coup whilst working at the Okavango School with friend Carl Benton.

Timeline
Day 7 starts at 8:00am EST, taking place 44 months after Day 6, and roughly 13 years, 2 months after Day 1. This is the first season to date to use Eastern Standard Time (EST) as opposed to Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Major subplots

 * Jack Bauer faces trial by United States Senate for human rights violations while working for CTU.
 * President Allison Taylor must decide whether or not to send American soldiers into the African nation of Sangala.
 * Colonel Iké Dubaku's attempts to use the CIP firewall to coerce the President into standing down from Sangala.
 * The return of ex-CTU agent Tony Almeida, who appears to be working with the terrorists.
 * Henry Taylor's investigation into the alleged suicide of his son, Roger.
 * Bill Buchanan, Chloe O'Brian and Tony Almeida's undercover operations to bring down the corrupt aspects of Taylor's government.
 * A biotoxin is brought into the country and the FBI and White House actively attempt to recover the toxin.

Ratings
The season premiere shown on Sunday (8:00am-10:00am) averaged 12.6 million viewers; the following night (10:00am-12:00pm) brought in 12.3 million viewers. Ratings remained at this level until 3:00pm-4:00pm, when they dipped to 10.5 million viewers. There was a steady increase after this, culminating in 11.6 million viewers for 5:00pm-6:00pm

Starring

 * Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer (17 episodes)
 * Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian (8 episodes)
 * Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor (17 episodes)
 * James Morrison as Bill Buchanan (10 episodes)
 * Annie Wersching as Renee Walker (17 episodes)
 * Colm Feore as First Gentleman Henry Taylor (10 episodes)
 * Bob Gunton as Ethan Kanin (15 episodes)
 * Jeffrey Nordling as Larry Moss (17 episodes)
 * Rhys Coiro as Sean Hillinger (10 episodes)
 * with Janeane Garofalo as Janis Gold (14 episodes)
 * and Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida (13 episodes)

Special guest star

 * Kurtwood Smith as Senator Blaine Mayer (6 episodes)

Guest starring

 * Frank John Hughes as Tim Woods (11 episodes)
 * Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Colonel Iké Dubaku (9 episodes)
 * Sprague Grayden as Olivia Taylor (8 episodes)
 * Warren Kole as Brian Gedge (7 episodes)
 * Rory Cochrane as Greg Seaton (6 episodes)
 * Isaach De Bankole as Ule Matobo (6 episodes)
 * Glenn Morshower as Aaron Pierce (5 episodes)
 * Peter Wingfield as David Emerson (5 episodes)
 * Carly Pope as Samantha Roth (5 episodes)
 * Ever Carradine as Erika (5 episodes)
 * Ryan Cutrona as Admiral John Smith (5 episodes)
 * Mark Aiken as Nichols (5 episodes)
 * Mark Derwin as Secretary of State Joe Stevens (5 episodes)
 * Enuka Okuma as Marika Donoso (4 episodes)
 * Eyal Podell as Ryan Burnett (4 episodes)
 * Tonya Pinkins as Alama Matobo (4 episodes)
 * Mark Kiely as Edward Vossler (4 episodes)
 * Tony Todd as Benjamin Juma (3 episodes)
 * Tim Guinee as Ken Dellao (3 episodes)
 * Andi Chapman as Rosa Donoso (3 episodes)
 * John Billingsley as Michael Latham (3 episodes)
 * Carlo Rota as Morris O'Brian (2 episodes)
 * Christina Chang as Dr. Sunny Macer (2 episodes)
 * Cameron Daddo as Vice President Mitchell Hayworth (2 episodes)

Special guest appearance by

 * Jon Voight as Jonas Hodges (6 episodes)

Crew
As stated by James Morrison in an interview with TV Guide, 95% of the crew is the same as from Season 1, meaning that there is constantly a good atmosphere on the set of the show. Main crew including Jon Cassar, Howard Gordon, Robert Cochran, Evan Katz, Manny Coto and others stayed on. Joel Surnow, the co-creator of the show, left during the Writer's Strike, which meant that he was not involved in the show's production after the first eight episodes. Joining the writing staff was Brannon Braga, Alex Gansa, and Juan Carlos Coto, and guest director of Season 6 Milan Cheylov returned and directed a four episode stint (although two were before the Strike and two after).


 * ''Read more about the Season 7 production staff...

Airings
Season 7 was delayed for over a year due the the 2007-8 Writer's Guild of America strike. Fox decided to hold out from airing the few episodes of the season that had been made so that all 24 episodes could be shown non-stop. As a result, it was decided that a prologue should be made to keep viewer interest at a high, and to allow Jack Bauer to explore new surroundings; Africa. The following episodes were broadcast as back-to-back as two-hour episodes:


 * Episodes 1 and 2; 8:00am-9:00am and 9:00am-10:00am on January 11, 2009.
 * Episodes 3 and 4; 10:00am-11:00am and 11:00am-12:00pm on January 12, 2009.
 * Episodes 11 and 12; 6:00pm-7:00pm and 7:00pm-8:00pm on March 2, 2009.
 * Episodes 23 and 24; 6:00am-7:00am and 7:00am-8:00am on May 18, 2009.