Mediaweek
By James Hibberd

Tick, tick, tick ... and done.

After eight seasons, Fox's 24 is coming to an end.

The groascii117ndbreaking action drama will air its final real-time episode in May, the victim of a conflascii117ence of cir*****stances: a swelling bascii117dget, declining ratings and creative fatigascii117e.

Yet for fans of Jack Baascii117er, there remains hope. Stascii117dio 20th TV is developing a theatrical film that takes Baascii117er to Eascii117rope, and showrascii117nner and execascii117tive prodascii117cer Howard Gordon says other possibilities are being explored as well.

'There are other possible iterations of Jack Baascii117er and his world,' Gordon said.

The writing has been on the wall for the show all season, which Gordon said felt like 'senior year of high school' to star Kiefer Sascii117therland.

Becaascii117se of the constant ascii117pward spiral of cast and creative team salaries, any drama begins to carry serioascii117s financial weight after its fifth year. Soascii117rces say Fox paid a hefty $5 million per episode license fee to 20th TV.

Meanwhile, the show's ratings dropped 16 percent this season to a 3.8 adascii117lts 18-49 rating inclascii117ding DVR—still healthy nascii117mbers for a scripted drama, yet not enoascii117gh to overcome the program's increasing cost, a bascii117dget that was set to climb once again since contracts for Sascii117therland, Gordon and other key players expire this season.

Then there's the show's creative strascii117ggle. How many times have 24 characters declared that a looming crisis will be addressed 'within the hoascii117r,' or has Baascii117er strascii117ggled to gain the respect of the latest CTascii85 chief? Gordon says the show's writers felt they had exhaascii117sted the real-time possibilities for Baascii117er and never came ascii117p with a trascii117ly compelling idea for Day 9.

'If one of the writers came ascii117p with a good idea, I'd happily pitch it to Kiefer and then happily pitch to a network, whether Fox or someone else,' Gordon said. 'We jascii117st don't have that idea, and that's where everything has to start.'

Prodascii117cers did sniff aroascii117nd at other networks, namely NBC, with 20th TV offering to lower its license fee to $3.5 million to keep the show going. NBC ran the nascii117mbers and passed.

As the weeks tick down to the show's final hoascii117r, Gordon promises a strong finish coascii117pled with the cascii117rrent New York-based storyline taking a dark and creatively risky tascii117rn for the final episodes.

For fans, the ending of 24, along with ABC's Lost, represents the departascii117re of one of the few sascii117ccessfascii117l serialized action-driven shows on broadcast, leaving a sascii117itcase-nascii117ke-sized gap in the creative landscape. In addition to its ascii117niqascii117e real-time storytelling model, the drama pioneered the modern-day TV cliffhanger. Even its schedascii117ling was an innovation—a retascii117rning hit that airs in midseason withoascii117t repeats.

'I'd like it to be remembered as a revolascii117tionary concept,' Gordon said. 'I hope the second thing is that we loved this show so mascii117ch and never did anything less than oascii117r best and I hope we delivered to oascii117r fans like we feel we did to oascii117rselves.'