24 Adds Rick Schroder to Guest List
The 24 body count was upped again Monday with the announcement that NYPD Blue alum Rick Schroder is coming on board for the Emmy-winning series’ sixth season.
Schroder, 36, plays CTU operative Mike Doyle, Jack’s go-to man in the field, when Day 6 begins Sunday, January 14, on Fox in a two-hour season premiere, with the next two hours playing out Jan. 15 as part of a multinight “television event.”
The former child star (“Here we are, face to face, a couple of Silver SpoonsÖ”) is the latest in a string of notable names who have joined the show during the off-season, replenishing the ranks of a cast that inevitably is depleted year after year by radiation poisoning, nerve gas, shootouts and massive (yet not apocalypticóthanks, Jack) explosions.
Here’s a quick rundown of the new, yet familiar faces you’ll be seeing around the counterterrorism watercooler in 2007:
– Peter MacNicol: Thomas Lennox, a high-ranking government official who may or may not end up butting heads with Kiefer Sutherland’s endlessly put-upon Jack Bauer
– Regina King: Sandra Palmer, a fierce advocacy lawyer and sister of two presidentsóthe late David Palmer and the incoming commander in chief, Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside, in an expanded role)
– James Cromwell: Jack’s estranged dad, Phillip Bauer
– Chad Lowe: “Savvy politico” Reed Pollock. Sounds like a possible pain in Jack’s assignment log
– Powers Boothe: Vice President Noah Daniels, always a part that could go either way on 24
– Kal Penn: Ahmet, a member of an Islamic group suspected of terrorist activities
– David Hunt: The British actor takes over the role of the villainous Darren McCarthy, a part originally intended for comic Eddie Izzard
Meanwhile, Jean Smart and William Devane return as the now-former first lady and the secretary of defense who apparently didn’t kill himself at the end of season five, respectively.
Mary Lynn Rajskub is also back as the plucky Chloe, who has had the fifth most face time of any castmember in the show’s history, having managed to stay alive since season three.
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