24 is an American television series produced for the Fox network created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, and starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration. Premiering on November 6, 2001, the show spanned 192 episodes over eight seasons, with the series finale broadcast on May 24, 2010. In addition, a television film, 24: Redemption, was broadcast between seasons six and seven. Fox announced in May 2013 that 24 would return as a 12-episode series titled 24: Live Another Day which aired from May 5 to July 14, 2014

Counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer fights the bad guys of the world, a day at a time. With each week's episode unfolding in real time, "24" covers a single day in the life of Bauer each season. Jack deals with assassination attempts, nuclear attacks, bioterrorism, torture, traitors, sleeper cells, other bad guys and the alarming tendency for his romances to end badly -- very badly.

The series begins with him working for the Los Angeles–based Counter Terrorist Unit, in which he is a highly proficient agent with an "ends justify the means" approach, regardless of the perceived morality of some of his actions.Throughout the series most of the main plot elements unfold like a political thriller.