Well deserved listing on THR’s list. Best fictional President ever!

Dennis Haysbert as David Palmer in 24

Dennis Haysbert plays David Palmer, voted by Blockbuster customers as respondent’s Favorite On-Screen President. Calm, resourceful, and dedicated, Palmer is an all-American former basketball star who served as a Maryland senator prior to his presidency.

Source: THR

Fan favorite 24 character Chloe O’Brian made TV Squad’s “100 Most Memorable Female TV Characters” list coming in at #91.

91. Chloe O’Brian

’24′ (2001-2010) | Played By: Mary Lynn Rajskub
Other women and other co-workers had come and gone (sometimes in a permanent manner) in Jack Bauer’s life, but Chloe was a bright, talented, somewhat antisocial (some fans believed she had Asperger’s) CTU analyst and eventual agency head whose expertise and willingness to challenge authority was directly responsible for saving the hero’s life on more than one occasion.

Check out the full list here.

Los Angeles Times made a list of “television’s top supporting players of 2010″ and Gregory Itzin’s character Charles Logan was among the ten chosen.

Gregory Itzin as President Charles Logan

7. Gregory Itzin (President Logan on ’24′)

When he showed up in “24′s” last season, he reminded us why we loved this show so much. Probably our favorite Jack Bauer antagonist of all time.

Check out the full list over at Los Angeles Times.

FOX just sent me this cute holiday video to post which features many 24 cast members wishing fans a happy holiday. Among the stars in this video are Kiefer Sutherland, Anil Kapoor, Leslie Hope, Dennis Haysbert, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Sarah Clarke, Xander Berkeley, James Morrison, Howard Gordon, Jon Voight, Carlos Bernard, Adondi Maropis, and Penny Johnson Jerald. Check it out:

Even the villains are in the Christmas Spirit! ;)

YouTube Link: Happy Holidays from 24 Cast Members

Extra has created a list of Best Fictional TV Presidents and “24″ has a strong presence, nabbing four of the ten spots.

President David Palmer

Show: “24″
Who: Dennis Haysbert
Best quote: “Listen to me. All of you. I know you’re not in the same room with me but you can see and hear me plainly enough. Take a good look. Do I seem scared? Am I breaking into a nervous sweat? Am I babbling? At a loss for words? Is my voice shaking? Can any one of you look me in the eye and tell me I’m disabled?”

President Charles Logan

Show: “24″
Who: Gregory Itzin
Best quote: “And I tell you something else, Martha. If you blow up like this again I’ll fill you so full of drugs you won’t even remember your own name. And then I will have you shipped off to an asylum where you can spend the rest of your life there if you like. Are we clear?”

President Allison Taylor

Show: “24″
Who: Cherry Jones
Best quote: President Allison Taylor: “You resigned from government service and the Senate regards you as having been a renegade agent. How am I supposed to know where your loyalties really lie?” Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland): “With all due respect Madame President, ask around.”

President Wayne Palmer

Show: “24″
Who: D.B. Woodside
Best quote: Jack Bauer: “Audrey Raines was willing to give her own life to save mine. I cannot and will not do anything less for her.” President Wayne Palmer: “You’re asking me to sign off on a probable suicide mission!” Jack Bauer: “With all due respect, Mr. President, sixteen hours ago your people were willing to hand me over for dead, and I did not hesitate.” Jack Bauer: “Mr. President, you owe me.”

Here’s a new “Ask Katee” where Katee Sackhoff reveals that she didn’t know Dana Walsh was a mole when taking the role (although she knew Dana was bad). The 24 question is the first one.

Tiffany: Hey Katee, did you know that Dana was going to be the mole from the beginning when you landed the role? If yes, was it hard to not show you were the mole? If no, when did you find out?
Katee Sackhoff: No, I didn’t know that I was the mole, but I knew that I was bad — and I knew I was really bad. I just didn’t know how bad. It’s so weird, every day you go to work and they’re like “so today you’re gonna do this” and you’re like “Ah! I thought it was that” so it was hard for me. I realized that I had to completely commit to everything that I was doing in the moment because that was the only way to sell who she was.

But no, I didn’t know I was the mole. But if I had known, it still would’ve been easy! I’ve gotten so good at lying to fans and family members at this point. It’s like an attribute – lie about what my characters really do. *laughs*

YouTube Link: Katee Sackhoff “Ask Katee” Home Edition Part 5

In honor of Friday the 13th, Fancast has composed a list of televisions unluckiest characters. Jack’s wife and 24 Season 1 character Teri Bauer gets a spot on the list:

Teri Bauer, ‘24′: One of TV’s saddest and most unexpected death scenes was preceded by 23 hours and 50-ish minutes of wrong turns, displaced trust (whoa, Richard Burgi isn’t the girl’s father?!) and even a blink-and-you-missed-it, dramatically convenient bout of amnesia. Sure, Teri’s batch of bad luck was compressed into that very first day of ‘24,’ but man, was a character’s fate ever sealed.

Source: Fancast

There’s no denying that Teri was an unlucky gal, but where is Jack Bauer on this list? All of his love interests have ended badly, usually resulting in death. His best friends turn out evil, heck, even his brother and father were evil. He’s had a heart attack, got addicted to heroin, was forced to fake his death and go into hiding, his friends were killed just to frame him, he gets captured and tortured for two years in a Chinese prison…

He goes to Africa to get away and trouble follows him there too (24: Redemption). In Day 7 he gets exposed to the pathogen and spends much of the day slowly deteriorating. After Renee got killed by a sniper and Bauer avenged her death, he’s now a fugitive on the run and has to flee the country.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure there is no contest here.

Nice little video interview with Bob Gunton (who plays Ethan Kanin).

Video Link: OnTheRedCarpet.com

“All I can say is, there are more shocks to come,” he said. “There was a big one last Monday. It was a shock for us too, but there are some really earth-shaking ones coming up.”

We asked him about a possible campaign for Cherry Jones for President, and he started to give us some scoop saying, “I don’t think she’d have it. I know she loves playing the president, but again, there is some stuff coming up that…” but stopped himself before finishing the thought, saying only “You may want to tune in.”

Certainly an intriguing answer to leave off on.

From the casting call for episodes 21/22:

[BERKOV] Russian Aide to the Russian Delegate working at the UN in NY. Mid 30s to mid 40s. Must be able to do a slight Russian accent.. Should be more upscale. In Episode 22…NICE CO STAR ROLE

Three days after this casting call was posted, Davoli excitedly tweeted “I BOOKED 24!!!” and on March 22 he posted a message to his Facebook fan group saying “Great time shooting 24 today. Stay tuned for episode #22.”

Little episode 18 tidbit near the end of video 1 – Sergei Bazhaev from earlier this season is in the courtroom with Jack Bauer.

Video Link: Annie Wersching on Extra (April 15, 2010)

Video Link: Annie Wersching on Hollywood 411 (April 15, 2010)

Question: Now that Renee has been killed off in 24, is there a chance of Audrey returning for the 24 movie? —Patty
Ausiello: Yes, there’s a chance. “Any character who is still alive has been discussed and is being considered,” says exec producer Howard Gordon. “But I’m not ready to disclose any names because it could change.”

Question: Any chance Kim will return for the big 24 finale? —Charlie
Ausiello: No. According to e.p. Howard Gordon, “Once upon a time she was [going to be in the finale], but we went in a different direction. The story took on a darker hue that didn’t include her.”

Not really sure what Howard is trying to pull here considering he already said Audrey Raines would remain an “unresolved” mystery just two weeks ago (to Ausiello himself even – how could they both forget so quickly?). I guess after Gordon pissed off the Renee fans this week, he’s trying to damage control and woo back the Audrey crowd by giving them false hope she could return. I find it amusing that Howard pretends things “could change” when the finale has already been written and filmed completely. Heh, my mistake – Gordon was talking about the movie here. Doh!

And I’m pretty angry at Howard Gordon’s Kim Bauer response, personally. Long-time fans, did you ever expect that Jack’s daughter would be completely left out of the series finale? Kim’s not dead or anything, just left out. Not even a short phone call split-screen. It was bad enough that Bauer loses his love interest (AGAIN) but now we get cheated out of a final Jack/Kim scene too. Seems like Bauer can’t have romance nor a family – give the guy a break once!

Source: EW.com – Ask Ausiello

PRESIDENT TAYLOR PRESSES ON WITH THE PEACE AGREEMENT AND JACK BAUER TAKES MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS IN AN ALL-NEW “24” MONDAY, APRIL 26, ON FOX

Michael Madsen (“Reservoir Dogs”) and D.B. Sweeny (“Eight Men Out”) Guest Star

With only six hours left, the clock races toward the series finale as President Allison Taylor faces impossible choices and much to the dismay of CTU, she enlists a private security firm to complete a sensitive task led by Mark Bledsoe (guest star D.B. Sweeny). Meanwhile, Jack calls in a favor to his old friend Rick Vickers (guest star Michael Madsen) before he embarks upon a crucial mission of his own in the all-new “Day 8: 10:00 AM-11:00 AM” episode of 24 airing Monday, April 26 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (TWF-819) (TV-14 L, V)

Cast: Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer; Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O’Brian; Cherry Jones as Allison Taylor; Annie Wersching as Renee Walker; Mykelti Williamson as Brian Hastings; Chris Diamantopoulos as Rob Weiss; Katee Sackhoff as Dana Walsh; Freddie Prinze Jr. as Cole Ortiz; John Boyd as Arlo Glass

Guest Cast: Gregory Itzin as President Logan; Bob Gunton as Ethan Kanin; Necar Zadegan as Dalia Hassan; Naneen Contractor as Kayla Hassan; James Liao as Devon Rosenthal; Reed Diamond as Jason Pillar; Michael Madsen as Jim Ricker; D.B. Sweeny as Mark Bledsoe; Navid Negahban as Jamot; Lesley Fera as Press Secretary; Justin Alston as Agent Beck; Graham McTavish as Mikhail Novakovich

The full press release isn’t out yet, but here’s the TV synopsis:

President Taylor asks a private security firm to complete a sensitive task; Jack asks an old friend (Michael Madsen) for a favor before embarking on a mission of his own.

So now we know the episode where the Jim Ricker character (played by badass Michael Madsen) comes into play. And somewhat surprisingly, it sounds like he may be Jack’s ally rather than a villain.

’24′ is almost over, but Jack Bauer is about to face one of his toughest challenges yet — trying to start a romantic relationship with Annie Wersching’s Renee Walker.

Jack and Renee take a well-deserved break from kicking bad guy ass to explore their romantic feelings for each other on tonight’s much-anticipated episode.

I recently got a chance to talk with Wersching, who plays Renee on ’24,’ about tonight’s big ep. We also talked about the fan reaction to her character and where Renee might be headed after the show ends. Wersching stayed mum about whether things would actually “work out” between Jack and Renee in the end, but she promised that the show’s final hours would deliver some surprising twists and turns that no one, not even Jack Bauer, could see coming.

How hard is it to say goodbye to ’24′ and to the character of Renee?
It’s incredibly hard to say goodbye to this character and the show too, because I’m involved in it and I got to be a part of it, but also because I’m a fan. It’s hard on both levels.

In your career you hope that there will be great things in the future, but it’s hard to leave this role feeling like it could possibly be the role of a lifetime. Obviously you hope as you go through your career that there’s going to be bigger and better things, but I just love her so much, and it’s such an interesting, in-depth character for a TV show.

As a fan it’s definitely a bummer because I think they still have a lot of good years in them, but I understand wanting to go out on a high note and go on to the movie.

Is Renee going to survive this season and head to the movies with Jack?
Well, you know, it’s ’24′ so you never know. I was lucky I survived one season (laughs). I’m not holding my breath, you know. But at the same time, I don’t think anybody knows any specifics quite yet about who is going to be in the movie. Obviously Jack will be in it, but other than that we haven’t really been told.

I did meet the movie writer (Billy Ray), but other than that I’m just hoping to survive this season and we’ll see how that goes. Surviving is a tough task on this show.

Judging by the previews for the next episode, it looks like Jack and Renee get some down time to be together alone, finally, and they actually kiss for the first time. What does all of that mean for the future of their romantic relationship on the show?

Yeah, it seems like it should have happened before, but it hasn’t. It almost happened in season seven, we had a kiss written in a scene in a hospital, but we didn’t film it, because it felt too cheesy, I guess. It didn’t feel right. But, yeah, I was surprised they leaked that in the previews.

(Tonight’s episode) is definitely an interesting episode in that the threat that Jack and Renee were helping CTU track is basically over. As far as what they were contracted to — he promised to find Hassan and they very sadly and unfortunately didn’t get there in time – he’s done with that. So they’re kind of like “Now what do we do?” (laughs) “How do we hang out with each other without guns involved?”

So they go back to Jack’s apartment and Renee brings up the fact that they made promises to each other throughout this day, but that she understands that you say things in the moment and she say she’s not going to hold him to anything that he’s promised. She’s trying to give him an out.

We shot those scenes over a couple of days, and they were pretty intense. There were definitely moments where we were like, as actors, like, “We’re so much better at running around with guns” (laughs). It was so different for us, but I think it’s going to be a really good episode. It’s going to be something different and something that fans have been wanting to see for a long time. Stuff happens that’s never happened on ’24′ before in terms of the Jack character, and I’m very much involved in that so I’m looking forward to seeing the fan reaction.

What has the fan reaction been like to you and the introduction and development of Renee?
I would say that the majority of the fans that I interact with or meet or Twitter or Facebook with are huge supporters of Renee, and they’ve been really great. It’s been interesting because the most intense ones who contact me are actually young women. They’re girls in high school or girls who are just starting college. That took me by surprise a little bit, because it’s a very male-watched show. But I was very pleasantly surprised to see that there are a lot of young woman that really look up to a strong woman on TV and they really enjoy Renee.

And you have your other fans that have somewhat of a Kiefer/Jack obsession. And probably somewhere deep down they think that he may actually marry them someday (laughs)! You know, those are the ones that aren’t quite as keen on Renee, but I think that it would be hard for them to be happy with any woman who was even, like, coming close to their man, which is ridiculous (laughs)!

Renee is a very strong female character. I know it’s hard to develop a character when the show only spans one day per season, but Renee has definitely evolved, especially when she came back this season.
Renee is a very strong woman, but I think most strong women on TV are simply that, very strong and that’s usually all you get to see. But she was able to be so strong in one moment and then the next moment she shows how conflicted she feels about things. She can go from kicking a guy’s ass one second to tearing up about it the next second. She’s a very complex woman who is strong, but you can also see that softer side of her. There were so many different levels to her and nuances, so I’m gonna miss her terribly.

So what’s next for you after the show ends? More action-adventure roles or would you like to play something different?
You know I had such a great time with Renee, and prior to Renee I wasn’t really playing roles quite like this, so I’m glad that people see me in this way now. But first of all I’m going to have my first baby in August.

Congratulations.
Thank you, thank you. So that’s going to be the next role for a few months, but I definitely love to work so I’ll get back out there and see what’s next.

I’m guessing your pregnancy is not going to be addressed on the show.
No, I mean it’s one day, so you couldn’t really be like, “Um, oh my God, I’m really hungry all of a sudden and I’m going to eat a lot and get a little bit chubbier!” No, none of that really. Timing wise, it actually worked out perfectly that it’s winding down just as I’m starting to show more.

My stunts this year were different from last year. Last year I was doing a lot of fights and rolls and bigger physical things, and this year it was not quite as physical. I did gun work, but not necessarily rolling on the ground or anything like that.

It worked out pretty good as far as hiding it. You know, honestly, the stomach wasn’t quite as hard to hide as some of other things that get large when you’re pregnant (laughs), so that part was interesting. It’s a little harder to hide.

Source: TV Squad

Mary Lynn did a couple radio interviews today and here they are.

99.5 WYCD Detroit’s Best Country

The “Dr Don Morning Show with Rachael and Grunwald” has a brief Mary Lynn Rajskub interview on 24‘s final season and what she’s doing next. It contains a short tease that “There’s some crazy stuff for my character”.

Source: 99.5 WYCD Detroit’s Best Country

CD 105.9 Classic Rock – KKCD (8 minutes 15 seconds)

This one she reveals a pretty big spoiler for tonight (that she’s taking over as head of CTU). I’m looking forward to seeing Chloe as the queen of CTU. She also says “the ending is spectacular”.

Source: CD 105.9 Classic Rock – KKCD

MIX 107.7 (7 minutes 24 seconds)

Again repeats the taking over as head of CTU spoiler.

Source: MIX 107.7