Kevin Reilly, the president for entertainment at Fox Broadcasting, surprised the producers of “24” on Thursday when, in response to a reporter’s question, he said that Fox had not decided whether “24” would return after its eighth season, which is in production for broadcast beginning in January.
“We haven’t made any decision whether it’s back or not,” Mr. Reilly told Abbie Bernstein, a writer for iF Magazine, an online publication. “It’s going to come down to a business decision. It’s not an inexpensive show on the network books, and we also want to finish strong. This is not a show we want to prop up. It will be a whole creative and business discussion and something we’ll have to deal with over the next few months.”
While it was no secret that Fox had committed to the show only through the coming season, two senior television executives close to the series said they were nevertheless surprised by Mr. Reilly’s remarks.
“I think it’s a sign that the network is ready to play hardball,” said one of the executives, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because, he said, he would like the series to continue.
With its heavy action scenes and with Mr. Sutherland earning a reported $13 million each season, “24” is expensive to produce. Fox Broadcasting will want to limit how much it has to pay for the rights to televise the series even though it is produced by 20th Century Fox Television, a sister division of the News Corporation.
Already, producers have been told to keep costs down. While Mr. Sutherland shot scenes for the seventh season of “24” in Washington, there are no plans for him to film scenes for the coming season in New York, where the eighth season is set.
Source Link: NYTimes.com
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