A bearded and shackled Jack Bauer returned from his confinement in a Chinese prison on Sunday night with the premiere of "24". The hit series starring Kiefer Sutherland was followed by another episode on Monday. The two hour Sunday epsisode suffered a bit in the ratings during the first hour, as the Patriots-Chargers football game lasted an hour and a half into primetime, but numbers for the show rose after the game had concluded. The Monday episode had to go up against the Golden Globes, but still pulled in more viewers than last season's first episode.
The show has already generated some controversy over its plotline involving low-grade nuclear weapons being detonated in the United States. A former senior FBI agent, Jack Cloonan, told ABC News that Al-Qaeda trainees had watched American movies for ideas, and thought that the show, "ups the ante for everybody."
Also, in what has to be the fastest marketing vehicle to swing into action, 20th Century Fox was expected to release a DVD today with the season premiere episodes on it - less then 12 hours after the show finished airing.
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