Major Upheaval for 24 The planned storyline for Season 7 has been scrapped at the last minute.
July 9, 2007 - There's some CTU worthy trouble going on behind the scenes at
24 right now.
TV Guide is reporting that "virtually the entire storyline" the producers had mapped out for the upcoming Season 7 has been scrapped. With production set to begin very soon, this causes a big upheaval for the show, which will now delay production for about three weeks.
TV Guide says the change was caused by
24's network FOX, which decided against an expensive plan to shoot several episodes in Africa. The producers considered shooting scenes set in Africa in Los Angeles instead, but finally decided to jettison the entire storyline and come up with a new one for the season.
TV Guide spoke to Mary Lynn Rajskub ("Chloe O'Brian") about the situation, who told them "I don't know what's going on over there, but they're going crazy. We usually start [back up] at the end of July, and I don't think we're starting until a couple weeks into August now. It's kind of exciting, because I think [the postponement] means that they're really having to dig in there and come up with new stuff."
This will bring even more attention to a season that is seen as a notable one for the series, which was widely considered to have had a decidedly weak Season 6. Early word was that many of the core elements to the series would be revamped or jettisoned all together in Season 6, in an attempt to breathe new life into the series, but with the huge alteration going on with the main storyline, it's not clear how much of that will remain the case now. One specific element revealed so far is the inclusion of a new female president in Season 7, thought that too is now in question given the turbulent situation.