Season 7




 * ''"Trust one."
 * &mdash; Season 7 promotion

Season 7 of 24 premiered in the United States on 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 following week. Every subsequent week had one episode, therefore placing the UK airing exactly one week behind the US.

The season concluded on with a double-bill finale. The finale aired in the UK the following Monday, May 25.

, a two-hour prologue episode to Season 7, aired on.

Season overview
Nearly four years have passed since Abu Fayed's reign of terror, 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. Jack Bauer works with the FBI.

24: Redemption
Taking place about 44 months after Day 6, 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 while working at the Okavango School with friend Carl Benton.

Timeline
Day 7 starts at 8:00am ET (5:00am PT), taking place 46 months to 4 years after Day 6, and roughly 13 years after Day 1. This is the first season to date to use Eastern Time as opposed to Pacific Time.

Season 7 begins on November 2nd, which is shown on the immunity agreement for Greg Seaton signed by President Taylor during the 11:00 PM to 12:00 midnight episode.

A news broadcast in "Day 7: 8:00am-9:00am" confirms that Season 7 takes place 65 days after the events of 24: Redemption. Supposing that Inauguration Day took place on January 20th as it does in the real world, this would place Day 7 on or around March 26th. However, the prion variant cabal planned to keep the canister of the bioweapon for six months to replicate it, and Tim Woods said that would mean the attacks would be "early next year" suggesting that Season 7 takes place during or after July.

As Operation Hero claims Day 8, which is set 18 months after Day 7, is set on May 20-21, this would set Day 7 in November.

When President Taylor signs Greg Seaton's presidential pardon, the "second day of November" is mentioned. That would put Inauguration Day on August 29th, setting Day 7 13 years and 2 months after Day 1, if Day 6 took place in November.

Format
Similar to the previous season, Day 7 can be split into three acts.


 * 1) Jack Bauer is drawn back into counter-terrorism after a threat is raised involving Tony Almeida, his supposedly dead former ally. The main antagonists in this act are General Benjamin Juma, Colonel Iké Dubaku, Nichols, David Emerson, Brian Gedge, Edward Vossler, Sean Hillinger and Ryan Burnett. This act can be split into two sub-acts: infrastructure attacks carried out by Colonel Dubaku (8:00am–6:00pm) and a direct attack on the White House by General Juma (6:00pm–9:00pm).
 * 2) After the defeat of the threat from Juma, another one rises in the form of private defense contractor Starkwood, who have possession of several canisters of a lethal pathogen. The main antagonists in this act are Jonas Hodges, Greg Seaton, John Quinn and their network of subordinates at Starkwood.
 * 3) All but one of the canisters are destroyed. The final one is seized by Tony Almeida for his crew, who plan to use it against a still weak United States. The main antagonists in this act are Tony Almeida, Alan Wilson, Cara Bowden, and the Prion variant cabal. (9:00pm–8:00am)

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.
 * 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 bio-weapon is brought into the country and the FBI and White House actively attempt to recover the toxin.
 * FBI Agent Renee Walker's internal conflicts about the rules and constraints she swore to abide by for the FBI and the necessity of torture to stop a terrorist.
 * The infection of Jack Bauer with the lethal pathogen which, as there is no cure, will lead to his death within a day or two.
 * Olivia Taylor's complicity in the murder of Jonas Hodges.
 * Tony Almeida's loyalties, which fluctuate between patriotism, the terrorists and his own personal agenda on several occasions.
 * Kim Bauer's attempts to find her father after hearing about his trial and her subsequent efforts to save him from his imminent death.

Ratings


The season premiere shown on Sunday ("8:00am-9:00am" and "9:00am-10:00am") averaged 12.6 million viewers; the following night ("10:00am-11:00am" and "11:00am-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."

Ratings remained the same throughout the rest of the season, but increased by 6 million for the double bill finale. When 7:00am-8:00am was airing over 20 million people were watching.

Cast

 * See also: Recurring characters, Character appearances for Season 7

Starring

 * Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer (24 episodes)
 * Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian (13 episodes)
 * Cherry Jones as President Allison Taylor (23 episodes)
 * James Morrison as Bill Buchanan (10 episodes)
 * Annie Wersching as Renee Walker (24 episodes)
 * Colm Feore as First Gentleman Henry Taylor (12 episodes)
 * Bob Gunton as Ethan Kanin (18 episodes)
 * Jeffrey Nordling as Larry Moss (19 episodes)
 * Rhys Coiro as Sean Hillinger (10 episodes)
 * with Janeane Garofalo as Janis Gold (21 episodes)
 * and Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida (20 episodes)

Special guest stars

 * Kurtwood Smith as Senator Blaine Mayer (6 episodes)
 * Elisha Cuthbert as Kim Bauer (5 episodes)

Guest starring

 * Frank John Hughes as Tim Woods (16 episodes)
 * Sprague Grayden as Olivia Taylor (14 episodes)
 * Glenn Morshower as Aaron Pierce (10 episodes)
 * Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Colonel Iké Dubaku (9 episodes)
 * Rory Cochrane as Greg Seaton (7 episodes)
 * Warren Kole as Brian Gedge (7 episodes)
 * Ryan Cutrona as Admiral John Smith (6 episodes)
 * Isaach De Bankole as Ule Matobo (6 episodes)
 * Amy Price-Francis as Cara Bowden (6 episodes)
 * Christina Chang as Dr. Sunny Macer (5 episodes)
 * Carly Pope as Samantha Roth (5 episodes)
 * Peter Wingfield as David Emerson (5 episodes)
 * Ever Carradine as Erika (5 episodes)
 * Gabriel Casseus as Robert Galvez (4 episodes)
 * Mark Kiely as Edward Vossler (4 episodes)
 * Enuka Okuma as Marika Donoso (4 episodes)
 * Omid Abtahi as Jibraan Al-Zarian (3 episodes)
 * John Billingsley as Michael Latham (3 episodes)
 * Ravi Kapoor as Muhtadi Gohar (3 episodes)
 * Carlo Rota as Morris O'Brian (3 episodes)
 * Tony Todd as General Benjamin Juma (3 episodes)
 * Paul Wesley as Stephen (2 episodes)
 * and Will Patton as Alan Wilson (5 episodes)

Special guest appearance

 * Jon Voight as Jonas Hodges (10 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 to 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, and  on.
 * Episodes 3 and 4, and  on.
 * Episodes 11 and 12, and  on.
 * Episodes 23 and 24, and  on.