Jack Bauer is coming back.
Fox executives said Monday that its drama "24" is returning next May for a limited run that will stretch into the summer. The adventure series with Kiefer Sutherland starring as Jack Bauer ended its original run in 2010.
Fox programming chief Kevin Reilly said creators had been thinking about doing a movie with the original cast. But when Fox announced it was interested in doing a big event miniseries, they realized it was the perfect format.
“They always had this idea of maybe someday doing a feature film,” he said. “I think they all agreed 24 being compressed into two hours is not 24.”
Sutherland said he was excited to see his character return to TV.
“The response to ‘24’ is unlike anything I have ever experienced as an actor before,” Sutherland said in a statement. “To have the chance to reunite with the character, Jack Bauer, is like finding a lost friend. The story ideas from [producer] Howard Gordon are exciting and fresh, and will not disappoint...Make no mistake, my goal is to knock your socks off.”
The network also announced a crop of 11 new series along with the miniseries from filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan for the 2013-14 season.
After changing the TV landscape with "American Idol," Fox is jumping on the miniseries bandwagon that started rolling with the History channel's hits "Hatfields & McCoys" and "The Bible."
"Wayward Pines," from Shyamalan ("The Sixth Sense") and based on the best-selling novel "Pines," stars Matt Dillon in what Fox called a "mind-bending thriller" about the search for missing federal agents in an Idaho town. It will air in midseason.
"American Idol" is staying put on Wednesday and Thursday nights when it returns for its 13th season next January.
And in the upcoming season, Seth MacFarlane, creator of "Family Guy," ''American Dad" and "The Cleveland Show," will be trying his hand at a live-action sitcom. "Dads" stars Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as best friends whose fathers (Martin Mull, Peter Riegert) become their new roommates.
J.J. Abrams ("Lost," ''Fringe" and the "Star Trek" movie franchise) is among the producers of "Almost Human," described by Fox as a high-tech action series set 35 years in the future. The drama debuting this fall stars Karl Urban, Michael Ealy and Lili Taylor.
The second new fall drama is "Sleepy Hollow," a retelling of Washington Irving's classic 19th-century tale "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Timid schoolmaster Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) is resurrected 250 years in the future and discovers he must save the world from destruction.
"The Following," the Kevin Bacon drama about an alliance of serial killers that proved a hit in its freshman year, will be back on the schedule in midseason.
Fox's Tuesday-night comedy block, introduced last year, will get two new occupants this fall, "Dads" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," which pairs Andy Samberg ("Saturday Night Live") and Andre Braugher ("Men of a Certain Age," ''Homicide: Life on the Street") as a hotshot detective and veteran captain.
"The Mindy Project" and "New Girl" will return to Tuesday, and the latter sitcom has earned the prized post-Super Bowl spot next February, Fox said.
Their block mate, "Raising Hope," is moving to Friday for its fourth season, where it will be paired with "Enlisted," about a man who returns home to reconnect with his two brothers and take charge of a group of misfits on a small Florida Army base.
Its cast includes Geoff Stults, who starred in the now-canceled "Ben and Kate." Other series canceled by Fox include "Touch," ''Goodwin Games," ''Mob Doctor" and the long-running "Cops," which has been picked up by the Spike network.
One new reality show, a cooking competition for youngsters ages 8 to 13 and with the working title, "Junior Masterchef," will debut in the fall with Gordon Ramsey among its coaches.
In midseason, Greg Kinnear will take on his first continuing broadcast series role in "Rake," a legal drama based on a hit Australian series of the same name.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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