Jack Bauer is about to get a fresh batch of time to run out of. Kiefer Sutherland will reprise his role as the ass-kicking, torture-happy counterterrorism agent on a new 12-episode limited series re-launch of 24 next May, Fox announced today, ahead of its "upfront" presentation to advertisers, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The announcement comes just days after the network canceled Sutherland's most recent drama, Touch. It'll be called 24: Live Another Day, and will be produced by former showrunner Howard Gordon. Yeah, we think they should have called it 12, too.
The show will be the debut offering in Fox's "event series" franchise. Fox entertainment chair Kevin Reilly said that a "little light bulb" went off for Gordon while they were prepping the aborted 24 movie, as they all realized that "24 being compressed into two hours isn't 24." And speaking of TV revivals, the Internet is abuzz today because the long-awaited fourth season of Arrested Development finally has a trailer. (More Kiefer Sutherland stories.)