Joel Surnow by Daniele Venturelli/WireImage.com
24 co-creator/executive producer Joel Surnow is leaving the Emmy-winning drama effective immediately, says the Reporter. Surnow served as an executive producer on the first eight episodes of the strike-struck seventh season, but will not be creatively involved in the series going forward.Though Surnow's deal with 20th Century Fox TV wasn't up until April 30, this week he asked for and was granted an early release."Joel created one of the landmark series of this decade in 24 and his contribution to its creative excellence over the years has been immeasurable," Fox says in a statement. "While he leaves the show in the incredibly capable hands of the talented Howard Gordon, his input will always be welcome."Related:• The 24 You'll Never See: Fox Addresses "Jack-lash"
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Kiefer Sutherland in 24 by Kelsey McNeal/Fox
As 24 prepares to present Season 6's final hours on Monday, attention has turned as of late to Jack Bauer's next trying day. As recently teased in TV Guide, a "huge transition" and "something completely new" await the series. And in his exit interview, Eric Balfour hinted at a farewell for CTU, as part of a sweeping "change of scenery." Hmm, what exactly is going to happen at 10:59 pm Monday?Invited to weigh in on the coming "reinvention," Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori tells TVGuide.com, "It will be a significant change in the show. Obviously, I can't share any details, but I'm very excited. I'm excited because [executive producers] Joel [Surnow], Bob [Cochran] and Howard [Gordon] are unbelievable writers, and... if they take what I think is the most daring show on television and decide to [stage] a greater high-wire act for next season, I think that’s what the show is all about. They have [the network's] full support and, I'm sure, the support of [star/executive pr...
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Question: Sometimes when the creators of a hit show begin to focus their attention on another project, their first project suffers. Do you think this might be what is happening at 24 this season, while Joel Surnow and Manny Coto are currently trying to get their comedy show for Fox News up and running? (Let's not even get into why anyone would choose the folks behind 24 — which despite its many other merits is one of the most humorless shows in TV history — to do comedy.) Something is terribly wrong at 24, and while they've pulled out of creative nosedives before, it's looking less and less likely this season. For instance, I totally agreed with your recent Dispatch about how much Jean Smart's appearance added to 24. Suddenly I felt like the show had a pulse for the first time since the conclusion of the first four hours of this season, and here were two characters, Martha and Aaron, I actually care about. You'd think that the show's creative team would realize what they have and run ...
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Adoni Maropis and Carlo Rota, 24
Question: I must admit that I do not watch 24, but I do keep up with online recaps. Recently, The New Yorker ran an article on the politics of 24, focusing on the question of how the show's liberal use (if you'll pardon the pun) of torture has filtered through to the real world, creating an atmosphere — even within the classrooms of experts who teach law and study torture — in which inflicting terrible pain on people is acceptable. There is certainly also a question about the extent to which 24 has normalized torture and inured the American public to this real issue. As the experts point out, torture does not "work" in real life (leaving aside the question of its barbarism), yet this is not a reality that is ever reflected in 24. The common defense of the show is that it is fiction and people can tell the difference. In fact, people probably can't tell the difference, and 24 — perhaps quite deliberately, given the disposition of Joel Surnow, its producer — has become an advertisement ...
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Joel Surnow
Why should liberals have all the laughs? On Feb. 18, Fox News Channel is looking to get a few younger viewers into its tent with The 1/2 Hour News Hour at 10 pm/ET. It's a satirical news program akin to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but will aim more of its shots at the left side of the political spectrum. It repeats on Feb. 25 and a second episode airs on Mar. 4, before FNC decides whether to make a weekly series. The show was developed by Joel Surnow, cocreator and executive producer of 24 and a self-described "right-wing nut job." The Biz talked to him and his fellow 24 executive producer Manny Coto about their new project and the recent heat over Jack Bauer's torture methods.
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As a sort of "test drive," Fox News Channel will premiere 24 producer Joel Surnow's The 1/2 Hour News Hour, a right-leaning version of The Daily Show, this Sunday at 10 pm/ET, then air a second episode on Mar. 4.... USA Network has given a series order to Burn Notice, a drama starring Jeffrey Donovan as a secret agent whose espionage careeer is mysteriously sabotaged, to debut in June. Gabrielle Anwar costars.... TBS has announced a summer premiere for The Bill Engvall Show, a domestic comedy starring the Blue Collar Comedy Tour headliner and Nancy Travis.
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• ABC ordered a quintet of pilots on Tuesday, including The Call, a single-camera comedy from 24 gurus Joel Surnow, Bob Cochran and Howard Gordon, and focusing on "two offbeat L.A. paramedics who save people's lives while messing up each other," says Variety. The series is likened to a mash-up of Emergency!, M*A*SH and Seinfeld — but not Saved. No, not a hint of Saved. Also greenlit by ABC: Sam I Am, in which a woman awakens from a coma with amnesia, yet determined to atone for her supposed bad-girl past, and The Middle, a dysfunctional-family sitcom fancied as "Roseanne meets Little Miss Sunshine."• Fox has added SNL alum Cheri Oteri and That '70s Show's Kurtwood Smith to the voice cast of The Life and Times of Tim, and ordered the pilot Deeply Irresponsible, in which an uptight family is shaken up when their free-spirited grandpa moves in.
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What's old is new again on 24.
Already this season, former CTU head Tony Almeida (played by Carlos Bernard) made a surprise appearance to save Jack Bauer's life. His wife, Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth), showed up a few episodes later. And other classic 24 characters will soon pop up, namely President Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), who is expected to return in April, and then maybe even Jack's beleaguered daughter, Kim.
"We're not done writing the season," executive producer Joel Surnow says. "We may have something for [Kim] toward the end."
But as of now, Elisha Cuthbert, who plays Kim, has not been asked to set aside time. "[Producers] usually call to check availability or to gauge interest. But I haven't heard anything yet," says her agent, Chuck James.
And, as with all things 24,
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