Quick: how old is Jack Bauer?
If you guessed "in his 40s," you're wrong. He's actually in his 50s! At least he will be when the new season of 24 starts on FOX in early 2009. The network has revealed that Bauer will have aged four years when the show returns in January. Chloe will no longer be pregnant -- she'll have a four year old. At least this is more realistic than what you see on soap operas, when a character will have a kid and then that kid will come back two years later and suddenly be a teenager.
In the first season of the show, Bauer was 35 years old, so 17 years have passed on the show. In real life, actor Kiefer Sutherland is 41 years old (he's younger than me? Jeez).
24 joins the ever-growing list of TV shows that are using time jumps as pivotal plot developments, including Lost and Desperate Housewives.
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-20-2008 @ 4:48PM
Oreo said...
This blog is pointless.
This is the seventh season, he has aged 17 years in 7 seasons. That would mean that each season would need a 2-3 year, meaning that every year has had a multi year job!
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 6:33PM
StillBash said...
No actually this "Blog" (is that the term now? A post on a Blog is called "Blog"?) is totally moronic considering the fact that the show's format is REAL TIME and if they weren't jumping in between seasons they have shown one day after the other. As an author, Bob _should_ be aquainted with the termini time-lapse, time dilation and time matching and as a TV critic you would think he knows in which category (or categories) a show falls.
This post is as if some guy blogging about Baseball posted a "RBI now worth 1 point in National League" blog entry. I really wonder why this isn't generating more ridicule.
6-20-2008 @ 4:49PM
Will said...
Weren't they in the year 2012 when the last season started? So they'll be in 2017 when it starts back?
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 4:51PM
Will said...
Weren't they in 2012 in Season 6? Does that mean Season 7 will take place in 2016?
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 4:56PM
MERVE-THE-PERVE said...
You meant to say that those other shows are following 24's lead in using time-jumps as pivotal plot developments. They've been doing it since day 2. It's nothing new to 24.
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 5:13PM
superbagman said...
I know this is splitting hairs, but according to wikipedia 13 years and 2 months is the amount of time that has passed all told. I'm sure they'd just retcon his age and say that he was 30 or something during day one. Not that that would make much more sense since Kim was 16 years old in year one. For a show that is all about time the producers sure do take a ton of liberties with it.
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 5:32PM
Rob said...
jeez,.. 50? Jack's gonna be stopping every two hours to take his arthritis meds.
Seriously,.. knowing what his body has been through, what kind of 50 year old will he be?
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 5:37PM
CMart said...
If Kim were 16 in Season 1 and Jack was 35, he would have been 19 when his daughter was born; while likely of course, I don't think that would have been the case in "reality".
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 5:43PM
christopher_martone said...
And just to add -- in the immortal words of MST3000, "[R]epeat to yourself 'It's just a show, I should really just relax' "
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 5:53PM
Christy said...
24 always has had time jumps between "days". You weren't under the impression that Jack's six bad days were consecutive, were you? ;)
Jack was 35 on the first day and, according to the established time passages between each season, a bit more than 13 years (not the 17 years that the NY Post article incorrectly stated) have passed between that first day and this upcoming 7th day. So, technically, Jack is 48.
That said, the people who make the show have said in interviews that the show exists in the perpetual present and that Jack is perpetually Kiefer Sutherland's age... which makes him, you guessed it, 41! :)
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 5:54PM
Christy said...
To superbagman...
>> For a show that is all about time the producers sure do take a ton of liberties with it.
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 6:08PM
Christy said...
Oops, not sure what happened to the rest of my reply to superbagman, but what it said was that the show is about time in the sense that it runs on a ticking clock with each episode representing an hour in a single day. Period.
It's never been "all about time" in a calendar sense.
... and to christopher_martone: What you said! It's just a TV show. It's not reality. It's set now and Jack is Kiefer's age. There. How easy was that? :D
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 7:19PM
superbagman said...
I was actually referring to the liberties that they've taken with the clock in general with things like getting across LA and such as well as the season time jumps.
But trust me, I wasn't really trying to pick nits, 24 is one of my favorite shows of all time, I really didn't mean to sound so grumpy. lol.
6-20-2008 @ 6:24PM
StillBash said...
Another example of Bob's vast knowledge of all that is TV.
Or another example of "how to make users click on headlines to generate ad revenue".
I like reading this website but I really want a "Bob free"-RSS feed. It's like a game. Every time I read a moronic headline I bet against myself whether it's a "Bob" post or not. Too bad that too often it isn't, while the post still remains pointless, uninformed and desperately trying to attract user interest.
I mean seriously. How embarrassing is this post? "24 joins...". It's as if the author knows nothing about 24. At what point do you have to be stop posting news on a TV related Blog because of how utterly complete your display of lack of knowing the subject you are writing about actually was?
Reply
6-21-2008 @ 2:33AM
Lucas said...
Yes yes yes! I agree with everything you have to say. Bob should really just be left to mentioning who's going to be on what talk-show tonight.
6-20-2008 @ 6:38PM
StillBash said...
Oh and another thing:
LOST DIDN'T JUMP TIME.
They are doing FLASHES which means they show stuff that happens BEFORE and AFTER the main storyline.
Last time I checked this is neither the case on 24 nor on Desperate Housewives.
This post is so utterly ridiculous I could cry that somebody got paid for writing it.
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 8:24PM
Jake said...
I have to say this post is pretty weak Bob. 24 has indeed been jumping ahead since the second season. If you weren't watching reruns of Studio 60 you'd realize this. It's more likely that 24 has been leading the way and freeing up story telling. Battlestar Galactica jumped ahead at the end of the second season. How I Met you Mother and Lost have been jumping around the timeliine moreso that previous shows. And Mad Men will also be jumping ahead about 4 months. So again, it's a good story to talk about, but it's probably better to write the story based in part on the idea that 24 broke rules about story telling and freed up other show runners to get more creative in how they show their stories.
6-20-2008 @ 8:24PM
Jake said...
I have to say this post is pretty weak Bob. 24 has indeed been
jumping ahead since the second season. If you weren't watching
reruns of Studio 60 you'd realize this. It's more likely that 24 has
been leading the way and freeing up story telling. Battlestar
Galactica jumped ahead at the end of the second season. How I Met your
Mother and Lost have been jumping around the timeliine moreso that
previous shows. And Mad Men will also be jumping ahead about 4
months. So again, it's a good story to talk about, but it's probably
better to write the story based in part on the idea that 24 broke
rules about story telling and freed up other show runners to get more
creative in how they show their stories.
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 10:26PM
Ed said...
Ditto all posts! That word 'joins' in the headline is annoying the hell out of me!
Reply
6-20-2008 @ 10:36PM
Jackie said...
It's only been 13.2 years since season 1, not 17.
Time between seasons:
Season 1-2: 1.5 years
Season 2-3: 3 years
Season 3-4: 1.5 years
Season 4-5: 1.5 years
Season 5-6: 20 months
Season 6-7: 4 years
It's been 8 years in real life (7 seasons, plus one off the air), so 13.2 isn't too far ahead.
Reply