Watching 24

I will confess that when it comes to that looney coporation Neisen Media Research, I have no idea what everything means. All these shares and ratings. I have no idea what they mean. So I just look at total viewers.

According to TV.com:

24 snagged 15.3 million viewers

Heroes took…13.6 million total viewers

That’s purely the information that I got from TV.com. Follow the link above to see the whole story. On the Heroes quote I took out the “rating” and “share” because I’m just focusing on total viewers.

So, going by total viewers it seems that 24 edged out Heroes this week by almost 2 million people. That’s the kind of news I like to hear.

24, Neilsen Media, Ratings, FOX, NBC, Heroes

The only guys to bite the bullet this episode were the too poor CTU agents sitting outside the building:

As always if I missed someone, just let me know. But, this was a slow episode so I think this covers everyone.

Tom Lennox (86)
-Going with the lesser known Lowe brother to be his henchman in disguise (+8)
-Gave us all an amazingly interesting history lesson on the Musket and it’s single shot capabilities (-9)
-Would rather wipe dog crap off his shoes with the Constitution, rather than follow it (-15)
-Blackmailed Karen Hayes into resigning (-10)
-Got Karen to resign (-10)
-Really showed his true slimeball-self in this episode (-10)
-Admitted to Karen that he is a “son of a bitch�? and seems to be pretty dang proud of it (+15)

Net Gain/Loss: -31
Current Total: 55

President Wayne Palmer (23)
-Continuing his rousing speech to the American people (+6)
-Still doesn’t realize that Tom is a slimeball and not merely “another point of view�? (-10)

Net Gain/Loss: -4
Current Total: 19

Bill Buchanan (118)
-Used that nice and calming Bill Buchanan tone to calm Nadia down over the racial profiling issue. He’d make a wonderful Grandpa (+9)
-Lied to Milo about Nadia (-4)

Net Gain/Loss: +5
Current Total: 123

Nadia Yassir (136)
-For some reason thought that lying about the racial profiling issue was what she had to do. I just didn’t understand all the secretiveness behind that (-6)
-Is a registered Republican (-4)

Net Gain/Loss: -10
Current Total: 126

Jack Bauer (311)
-Didn’t believe Graem even after the bag torture (+5)
-In his most forceful, Jack Bauer death-voice, told Graem he was indeed going to leave his family and go with him. “Oh, yes you are�? (+9)
-Told Graem not to talk about “loyalty.�? Man there’s some deep seeded hate between those two (+5)
-Handcuffed Graem to a bookcase because he could (+6)
-Let someone get the drop on him so easily and pistol whip him (-10)
-Attacked Graem after he mentioned Teri (+5)
-Actually listened to his Father and let Graem get freed from the bookcase (-10)

Net Gain/Loss: +10
Current Total: 321
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11:00a.m.–12:00p.m.

This was another slower than normal episode, but still a good one. The problem I had was there was Jack at the beginning and the end, but nowhere in the middle.

The big stories in this episode were Tom Lennox threatening Karen to resign, and Walid in the detention camp.

Poor Walid, it seems he was sacrificed for nothing. Is that all that Walid’s story was meant to tell us? That sometimes some people just get caught up in the wrong situations because of other people’s choices. I think so. I think that Walid’s story is all but over with. Although, Sandra Palmer will have something to go to the President with now, and as much as I can’t stand her she’s got a point.

Oh also congratulations to the FBI and whoever else is running that detention camp, for running the worst camp EVER! First, you would think that there would be guards on the inside of the gates. Second, really how did someone sneak a phone in? Remember when Walid came in? They specifically said the phrase “cavity search.�? That seems like a pretty thorough search to me.

The other story involved Tom Lennox and his plan to move forward with his detention camp plans. He dug up some dirt on Karen Hayes, and forced her to resign. Poor Karen, although she should’ve told the President up front why she was handing in her resignation. As a result of Tom’s racial profiling, Nadia has lost all of her security clearance. I’m not quite sure why she couldn’t tell anyone, or was afraid to tell anyone about it. I didn’t understand that at all.

It seems the British guy that Fayed’s been talking to is actually the McCarthy that Jack is looking for. After torturing Graem (man I hate that guy) he found out about the business dealings that his Father Phillip (James Cromwell) had with McCarthy. But, when Jack shows up at McCarthy’s office, all he finds is his Dad who’s also looking for McCarthy.

Graem finally shows his true colors when he takes his Dad and Jack hostage with his henchmen. Boy was that a mistake! It’s like James Bond, if you don’t kill him when you can you won’t and he’ll get you back for sure. I’m happy that Jack finally knows that his brother is nothing but a bad guy and needs to be dealt with accordingly. It’s only a matter of time before Jack finds out that Graem was behind the David Palmer hit, and oh BOY is the torture-extravaganza going to be released!

Jack hasn’t killed someone in quite a while, but I’m feeling like next episode is going to be Jack’s coming out party.

24, Keifer Sutherland, James Cromwell, Jack Bauer, FOX, Season 6, Episode 6

I’m not a big awards show fan. Personally I don’t know how people can sit and watch them. But, for any of my readers that are award show fans and just have to see “what they’re wearing,” then here’s your fix.

Some pictures of Keifer, Roger Cross, Kim Raver and Mary Lynn (Chloe).

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Ever wonder what the actual year is in 24? Well, according to this article, it’s actually 2012, although the producers would like to keep that information about the show quiet it doesn’t keep them from having fun with it. On all the computer screens in CTU 2012 appears.

I’ve always wondered with all the time that is passed over between seasons, what the actual year is, now I know. 24 takes place in it’s own universe anyway, and for all intents and purposes, it’s the year 2007 this year. But, being actually 2012 maybe people are more apt to leave their GPS enabled phones in their cars. Because in 2012, who doesn’t have a GPS phone?

New feature time. I know I’m taking the title straight from what they say at the beginning of every 24, but I feel it fits here very well.

This is a place where we can recap what happened last week and we can also theorize what’s going to happen tonight.

Last week was, all-in-all, a pretty laid back episode of 24. Jack is still at 2 kills, but he did save someone from a dangling helicopter with a TV antenna, that was pretty cool.

We know that Fayed is looking for a new nuclear scientist to be able to set off his last 4 suitcase nukes, and that he’s getting what appears to be a British (I’m not sure yet) man to facilitate that.

Something I’m hoping comes about soon is that CTU finds that dirty Sergeant that actually let Namir escape. I hope they just don’t leave a lead like that dangling. It shouldn’t be too hard to find and interrogate that guy. He’s probably full of information.

The big question is, what is Jack going to do to his brother? And where does Jack’s Dad fit into all of this? Well, I guess that’s two questions but they go together.

So, what does everyone else think is going to happen tonight?

Remember to stay tuned for the review tonight, and the Character Countdown tomorrow.

This is just the video from the “Next Week on 24″ segment after last week’s show, but there are a lot of interesting things to think about.

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With all the questions swirling around this young fellow that showed up in episode 5 this past Monday, I’d like to ask the Watching 24 readers what they think.

A few readers have brought up the possibility of Graem’s son, Josh, actually being Jack’s son. We already know, by the way Graem was acting, that Jack has had something more than a friendship with Graem’s wife.

So what do you think? Could this kid actually be Jack’s son, not Graem’s? And if he is, is Graem actually doing all of this because of some stupid sibling rivalry because Jack has been with his wife? I hope it doesn’t turn out to be that easy. Letting off nukes and killing Presidents because you’re mad at your brother, I just hope it doesn’t turn out that that’s the real reason Graem is a terrorist.

Now if Graem is doing this because he’s never had that full head of hair like his brother, I’d be okay with that.

UPDATE: Faithful reader Willy has gone above and beyond and photoshopped Kim and Josh together and came up with this:

Man, they look a LOT alike!!!

Fox is steaming mad about the premiere episodes that were leaked onto YouTube before the premiere started.

According to this article, sent in by faithful reader the other aaron, Fox has subpoenaed YouTube for the identity of the user that uploaded the videos.

There was a brief mention of the episodes being leaked to P2P filesharing, but there was no mention of legal action being taken towards those sites, or downloaders. It’s probably easier to catch someone from YouTube rather than someone from a Torrent site.

Check out this article in TV week, it’s pretty cool.

It talks about how executive producer Howard Gordon watches the ratings “obsessively.” Even though 24 was narrowly edged out by Heroes he still felt like the episode fared very well (although it didn’t go into detail about how he felt after being beat by Two and a Half Men).

But, the most interesting stuff is later on in the article. He talked about how this episode was a lot more character development with Jack than anything else.

He’s quoted as saying:

“We’ll see more about Jack’s past and answer some questions about why Jack is Jack.”

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All in all it was a very quite episode as far as death is concerned. Jack didn’t kill one person, again! It has been a really slow start for him. Hopefully sometime in the VERY near future Jack is going to get his “Jackness” back.

EPISODE 5:

We were informed that no less than 12,000 people were killed with the nuke:

The guy that was already dead in the helicopter, the actual pilot I think (sorry it was the best picture I could get):

Fellow readers I give you the, 24 Absurd-o-Meter from the New York Magazine’s blog called The Daily Intelligencer.

What they do with the Absurd-o-Meter is:

…each week count down the most incredibly ridiculous (ridiculously incredible?) plot points in the last hour of Jack Bauer’s crappy day.

Some of them are pretty funny, and pretty snarky like:

There is apparently no traffic — in L.A.! — soon after a nuclear explosion. Carping about the lack of traffic on 24 is always easy, but still: It only took fifteen minutes for Jack to get a car delivered with all the chaos that’s going on? Never mind, Enterprise: CTU will pick you up.

What do you think? Do you like it?
I would say that I’m pretty snarky in the Countdown, but overall I love 24, and have nothing whatsoever against it. What I’m wondering is do you think they are doing this in the spirit of the show…or do they hate the show and want to make as much fun of it as they can?

Just browsing around Fox.com, and it was brought to my attention from Willy in the comments, that Fox is spelling Graham’s name Graem.

You can take a poll on if you remember who Graem is from season 5.

Also, something that I found a little interesting is that you can add yourself to the 24 map of fans.

I put myself on under Watching24.com. Feel free to add yourself, and to add me to your top fans. Tell me if you do and I’ll add you and we can have a Watching24.com cult on the map.

And from now on I’ll try to spell Graham’s name Graem. Although I like Graham better because it makes more sense.

So here are the totals for the ratings on Monday.

24 was narrowly beat out by Heroes. Heroes had 14.9 million viewers compared to 24’s 14.5 million according to Buddy TV.

But, here’s the surprise, Heroes didn’t win the ratings for Monday. Nope, it was…wait…is this correct…yup…Two and a Half Men. Charlie Sheen’s CBS sitcom had 15.9 million viewers.

All I have to say to people out there is, are you crazy? You have two quality shows Heroes and 24, and you decide to tune into a formulaic sitcom with Charlie Sheen? I’m stumped.