Ledger Pop Journal - Celebrity News & Sports

Two hours remain in the Fox hit show 24 and certainly there promises to be a few dead bodies along the way when the show concludes tonight. This year has not been quite up to snuff as usual and viewership has declined. "None of us is satisfied with this year," Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori said in a teleconference Thursday. "We really heard what the loyal audience has said to us. It's really fueled the show runners to do something different next year."

24 Season Finale: Who Dies at Season's End?

"You try to keep things interesting, find new ways to tell the story, and unfortunately, we wound up repeating ourselves somewhat," co-executive producer David Fury told TV Week magazine.

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"There are relationships that Jack had that we can't exploit anymore, and that's certainly a problem," he added. "We don't have those people to pull from anymore for stories."

Count the dead yourself, starting with Curtis Manning this year, and going back to include David Palmer, Edgar Stiles, Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler and all manner of former CTU chiefs (yeah, it's sad Bill Buchanan had to step down, but two of his predecessors died on the job). They were all gone as quickly as they came.

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With so many characters dead, Fury said, "it becomes harder for the audience to latch on to new characters. It takes time for those characters to garner the same affection that the older characters did."

But what about the final two hours, certainly many believe that Jack's father will be killed. Could Jack be killed? He's always said even he isn't guaranteed life on the show. Not likely as the series would quickly plummet. But expect something different. "We'd love to set the show elsewhere and see Jack do something completely new," executive producer Howard Gordon told TV Guide. "I'd like to see a huge departure," Sutherland, the star and executive producer, told the magazine.

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Will Mike Doyle take over CTU? This season has not met my expectations, especially after a thrilling start. But it's still one of the best shows on television. Let's see the father son battle tonight.