Season Six, also known as Day 6, of the television series 24 premiered on Sunday, January 14 2007. It premiered on Sky One in the UK on January 21 2007, with two episodes, then two episodes the following week, and another two the week after, before having only one episode per week. The Australian premiere was on January 30 2007.

The season's storyline began and ended at 6:00 a.m. It is set 20 months after the events of the fifth season.

A 10-minute prequel was available exclusively to the American audience with the fifth season DVD.

Season Six (2007) is set 20 months after Season Five. Show designers acknowledge that it should technically take place in January, 2013, but also that this is partially incorrect, as they avoid the use of dates in order to have the show remain in a "perpetual now".[1] Even though the phones in CTU show this, Wayne Palmer acknowledges that he has been president for a little over three months, and according to years past, the real date should be May, 2013.

After the events in Season Five and over the last 11 weeks before Day 6, the United States has been targeted coast-to-coast in a series of suicide bombings. A man named Abu Fayed agrees to give the U.S. the location of Hamri Al-Assad, the supposed terrorist mastermind of these attacks, in exchange for Jack Bauer with whom he has a personal grudge. As a result, President Wayne Palmer has negotiated the release of Jack Bauer from a Chinese prison, under "high-price" terms.

However, Bauer finds out that Assad is actually trying to stop the attacks, and Fayed is the true mastermind. Jack manages to escape, and saves Assad from being killed in an air strike. Jack and CTU, with Assad's help, discover Fayed's true intention: to detonate nuclear bombs on U.S soil. Now Jack has the task to recover the remaining nuke, thus setting up the day's chain of events.

• Episodes 1-4: Jack Bauer, after being taken prisoner by China 20 months earlier, is released under a deal arranged by President Wayne Palmer. Jack is immediately asked to sacrifice himself to Abu Fayed, who has offered CTU Hamri Al-Assad, who is believed to be the terrorist mastermind behind the suicide bombings of the last 11 weeks, in exchange for Bauer. Bauer finds out, however, that Assad is actually trying to stop the attacks, and Fayed is the true mastermind. Bauer escapes, rescues Assad, and then prevents a subway bombing in Los Angeles. Bauer & CTU then find out that the bombings of recent weeks were all designed to distract the United States from Fayed's true objective: the detonation of five suitcase nuclear bombs across the United States. At the end of the fourth episode, one bomb is detonated in Valencia, north of L.A.

• Episodes 5-11: Jack discovers that his father Phillip and brother Graem are involved in the plot as well as events in Day 5. After defusing one of the remaining bombs which purposely activated by Fayed to aid his escape, Jack successfully rescues his nephew, Josh, from Phillip (who killed Graem because he was a liability). Phillip escapes, but leaves Jack a lead to call former President Charles Logan. President Logan claims that his connection with the Russian Consulate General, Anatoly Markov can help Jack find Dmitri Gredenko, a lead given by Assad. Gredenko provides Fayed with the bombs and is planning to arm RK-2 Aerial Drones with the bombs to attack the U.S. At the White House, President Palmer refuses to implement security measures that would suspend civil liberties and refuses to take military action against countries some believe supported the attacks. Instead, he enlists Assad to make a speech to the world asking his people to give the U.S. information on locating Fayed and move towards peace. Some in the government, claiming to be true patriots, are unhappy with Palmer's plan, namely Deputy Chief of Staff Reed Pollock. He plans to assassinate the President and frame Hamri Al-Assad for the attack. Chief of Staff Tom Lennox tries to prevent such attempt, but he is unsuccessful as the podium explodes, killing Assad and leaving Palmer in critical condition.

• Episodes 12-15: As the president is in critical condition, Vice President Noah Daniels assumes executive powers and threatens to attack Fayed's country if they fail to stop Fayed. Logan fails to blackmail Markov successfully into giving up Gredenko, so Jack breaks back into the Russian Consulate and takes Markov hostage, torturing him until he gives up Gredenko's whereabouts. Gredenko and Fayed are in the desert, preparing to launch the nukes on the unmanned drones. Jack tries to contact to CTU, but he is captured by the Russians. President Logan convinces his ex-wife Martha to call the Russian First Lady, Anya Suvarov, who convinces Russian President Yuri Suvarov to authorize CTU action against the consulate (led by new Director of Field Operations Mike Doyle). Jack immediately gives CTU Gredenko's location, but it is too late, as they already launched a drone toward San Francisco. CTU manages to locate the drone pilot through a breach at CTU (for which Nadia Yassir is blamed, but later cleared), and Jack manages to crash land the drone. However, the bomb's nuclear core is compromised in the crash landing, releasing radiation, prompting Vice President Daniels to launch a nuclear strike against the Middle-East. Sandra Palmer gives consent to bring President Palmer out of his coma, and he is able to stop the attack.

• Episodes 16-17: Gredenko is captured by CTU and he agrees to cooperate in exchange for amnesty. But his cooperation is fake when he tells Fayed that it is a trap. Gredenko cuts off his arm to escape without the tracking device. But he reveals Fayed's identity in a bar, where a mob successfully holds Fayed. Fayed is captured while Gredenko bleeds to death after he escapes. Meanwhile, Palmer successfully fends off a challenge from Daniels, but reverses his position and orders the attack against Fayed's country. President Palmer's nuclear strike is revealed to be a ruse to pressure Fayed's country into revealing Fayed's associates. This information is then used in another ruse staged by CTU in attempt to lure Fayed to reveal the location of the bombs. The ruse is unsuccessful, but Jack is able to follow Fayed. After a struggle with Fayed, Jack single-handedly kills Fayed and his men and finds the two remaining bombs. The crisis seems to be over. But then Jack receives a phone call from Audrey Raines who had been presumed dead in China, and is held by Cheng Zhi, the same agent who kidnapped and tortured Jack for the past two years. Zhi then gives Jack a number to call, threatening to kill Audrey if Jack doesn’t cooperate.

• Episodes 18-19: Cheng demands that Jack obtain a circuit board from the suitcase nuke in exchange for Audrey's freedom. The board would give the Chinese access to Russia's defense codes, which could spark a crisis if the Russians find out. With Chloe's help, Jack tries to retrieve the circuit board, knowing that CTU wouldn't support his action. But Morris discovers her activities and forces Chloe to tell Buchanan about Jack's action. Doyle disables Jack, who asks to speak to the President to request authorization to save Audrey. President Palmer reluctantly agrees after Jack guarantees he won't allow the Chinese to get the board, and that he would sacrifice himself with it if necessary. Meanwhile, with the nuke crisis over, President Palmer and his staff return to the Oval Office where Palmer demands that Vice President Daniels resign using the evidence about his perjury. But President Palmer collapses from internal bleeding during a press conference before Daniels resigns. After Daniels assumes executive duties, he reverses Palmer's order for Jack's operation and Jack turns rogue, determined to save Audrey. He and Cheng meet to do the exchange, but Doyle and his team, who have tracked Jack down, attack Cheng's men just as Audrey is freed and Jack gives up the board to Cheng. Jack is arrested before he can destroy the board, and Cheng escapes with it. Audrey is safe, but she seems to have had a mental breakdown as she doesn't recognize Jack and appears to be in a trance state.

• Episodes 20-21: Russia discovers that the Chinese have the circuit board through a leak in the White House staff. Lisa Miller, Daniels' aide with whom he is romantically involved, is also in a sexual relationship with Mark Bishop who, unknown to her, spies for the Russians by stealing classified information from her PDA. Russian President Suvarov threatens to launch an attack if the US government fails to retrieve the board. Lennox advises Acting President Daniels to use Miller's connection to trick Russia into believing that the US has retrieved the board. Cheng has possession of the board, but discovers that it has been damaged and he knows who can fix it for him. Back in CTU, a Division doctor is preparing a dangerous procedure to drug Audrey so that she will provide information to CTU about Cheng. Doyle helps Jack to escape custody so that he can get information from Audrey without her being hurt. Jack takes Audrey out of Medical by force and takes cover in a room. Audrey is still semi-catatonic, but provides a name (Bloomfield) which CTU thinks may be where Cheng held her. Jack agrees to let Nadia take Audrey because she promises him that Audrey will be safe. Jack goes back into custody and Nadia sends a tactical team led by Doyle to intercept Cheng. The team discovers Cheng's hideout which has the empty crates from a significant amount of weaponry, which suggests they are about to launch an attack. The target is soon revealed to be CTU. CTU is infiltrated by the Chinese, led by Zhou, and most members of CTU are taken hostage. After the assault, Milo is fatally shot when he steps up to protect Nadia. Meanwhile Jack convinces his guard to release him from the cell, and kills several Chinese operatives before rendezvousing with Marilyn and Josh, who are still inside CTU. Marilyn and Jack are soon captured while Josh attempts to escape through an air duct. Cheng orders Zhou to find Josh, as it becomes apparent that he is the "package" that they are looking for. After his mother's life is threatened, Josh reveals himself to Zhou. It is discovered that Cheng had made a deal with Phillip Bauer, who has agreed to repair the component in exchange for his grandson.

• Episode 22: After Zhou's men bring Josh to Cheng, Jack, Nadia and Morris retake CTU with Doyle's help as his team returns. Jack and Doyle then pursue and kill all of Cheng's men before Jack corners Cheng. Seeing that Josh is in danger of falling off the roof, Jack chooses to save him instead of pursuing Cheng who escapes. Jack is stunned to hear from Josh that his father Phillip is connected to his kidnapping. Cheng informs Phillip that he has lost Josh and demands that Phillip give back the repaired circuit board, but Phillip refuses. Back at CTU, Ben Kram from division arrives to investigate the security breach which he blames on Nadia's inexperience, saying that Buchanan shouldn't have left her in charge. Morris overhears the conversation and tells Nadia not to blame herself. Meanwhile, the ruse involving Lisa Miller appears to be successful when Mark Bishop begins to upload the fake email from her PDA, but he becomes suspicious and confronts Lisa. At first she claims nothing is wrong, but, feeling angry at Bishop for using her, she attacks him. Bishop fights back and chokes her into unconsciousness, as Lennox and the Secret Service rush in and successfully force Bishop to transfer the fake intel to the Russians. Thinking that his plan has worked, Daniels informs President Suvarov that the circuit board has been destroyed. But Suvarov, who has monitored Bishop and knows about Daniels' deceit, again threatens to launch an attack in two hours unless the U.S. government retrieves the board. Later, Phillip Bauer offers Daniels a deal: he will deliver the circuit board to the Americans in exchange for Josh and free passage to the country of his choice. Daniels agrees and apparently orders CTU to make the exchange. Doyle takes Josh away in a helicopter while ordering his men to bring Jack to CTU. Jack doesn't know about the deal but realizes Josh is in danger.

• Episode 23-24: Jack finds out about the deal and, knowing Phillip would never give up the circuit board, he calls Karen Hayes and asks for her help. Since she is unable to convince the Vice President to call off the exchange, she goes rogue and asks her husband, Bill Buchanan, to help Jack. Bill agrees and helps Jack escape. As Karen is detained, Bill and Jack drive to where Doyle is waiting to make the exchange of Josh for the circuit board, but they are too late - a decoy circuit board has exploded, seriously injuring Doyle and Josh being taken away by Phillip's men on a boat. Using the information Jack provides about his father's business holdings, Chloe and Morris are able to deduce where Phillip is - an offshore oil rig. Daniels decides to launch an air strike against the oil rig to destroy the circuit board believed to be in Phillip's possession, and everyone on the oil rig, hoping that the Russians would be satisfied and prevent a war. Determined to save Josh from both the air strike and Phillip, Jack and Bill proceed to the oil rig via helicopter with only minutes remaining before the strike. They arrive in time to kill Phillip's men and capture Cheng alive. Phillip tells Josh they are going to rendezvous with a Chinese submarine, to go to China. Josh hits Phillip over the head and manages to grab his gun and shoots him, but does not kill him. Jack arrives and stops Josh from killing his grandfather, not wanting him to live with that for the rest of his life. He sends Josh to the helicopter and leaves Phillip to die. Jack barely makes it back to the helicopter as the missiles hit. During the flight, Jack jumps into the water, Josh wants to go back to get him, but Bill says Jack isn't ready to return to CTU yet. Bill takes Josh back to CTU where he and his mother are reunited. Bill and Karen are freed from custody and resign. Jack confronts Audrey's father, former Secretary of Defense Heller, at his home, and verbally lashes out at Heller and the men like him for abandoning Jack despite his sacrifices for his country. Heller agrees that it isn't right but that it is Jack's personality to devote himself to violence and that Jack will not be able to take care of Audrey in the way she needs. Jack realizes he is right, and tells a sleeping Audrey that even though he loves her, he must let her go, for her own sake. He walks outside to a cliff and mournfully stares off into the ocean, as the season ends with a silent clock.

• The bad relationship between National Security Advisor Karen Hayes and Chief of Staff Thomas Lennox forces Karen to resign. Karen later withdraws her resignation after the assassination attempt on President Palmer. Somewhat ironically, Hayes and Lennox find themselves allied with each other in opposition to Vice President Daniels' plans to launch nuclear weapons, though Hayes' opposition to Daniels' actions is apparently stronger. Their conflict ends when they agree to a truce after teaming up together to keep President Palmer in office. When Karen is arrested for assisting in Jack's escape, Lennox persuades Daniels to drop the charges of treason against her and Bill, asking only for her resignation.
• The bad relationship between Morris and Milo Pressman; each had been involved with Chloe, and Morris ended up with her; however, when Chloe brings up the fact that Morris aided the terrorists while being held captive, Morris tells Chloe the relationship is over. Later Chloe learns she is pregnant and gets back with Morris again.
• Walid Al-Rezani, boyfriend of Sandra Palmer, spies for the FBI inside a detention center in Washington D.C., only to be beaten and hospitalized for nothing as the suspected inmates are merely spectators.
• President Wayne Palmer rejects Tom Lennox's executive orders for federal intervention in suspecting Muslim communities in front of the entire Cabinet.
• Morris being emotionally depleted and mired in self-pity after being tortured by Abu Fayed and forced to program the trigger device that can arm the remaining nukes, tempting him to start drinking again. He later suppresses his habit by disposing his drink and focusing back on his work.
• During the tense reunion between Martha and Charles Logan, she stabs Logan in the shoulder with a kitchen knife due to her psychological instability since her divorce from the former President.
• Milo Pressman has a romantic interest in Nadia Yassir. Although compromising CTU system security, Milo allows Nadia to use his clearance code after she is red-flagged by Homeland Security because of her Muslim roots. He then defends Nadia after she is suspected of leaking intelligence to the terrorists, saying she is not a traitor. For this, he is accused of wanting to sleep with Nadia. Milo and Nadia then share a passionate kiss, but both agree they need to focus on work and deal with their feelings later. Unfortunately, any chance of them having a relationship is abruptly destroyed when Milo is shot dead by Zhou after claiming to be the head of CTU to protect her. As an after-effect of his death,, Nadia is emotionally distressed, perhaps a sign that she reciprocated his feelings.
• The bad relationship between President Wayne Palmer and Vice President Noah Daniels stems from their disagreement on counter terrorism policies. It is revealed from their conversation that they ran for office together in order to balance the ticket, not because of their similarities on ideology.
• Vice President Noah Daniels and Lisa Miller are in a sexual relationship, and she also is sleeping with Mark Bishop, a Washington lobbyist who is using her for information to pass it to the Russians. She claims that she did not know that he was getting information from her.

A 10-minute prequel of Season 6 of 24 is available on the Season 5 DVD. The clip begins with a recap of Jack's capture at the end of season 5 before cutting to him now being held captive by the Chinese, 7 months later at an unidentified location. He is being tortured by several guards who inform Cheng Zhi that they are still unable to extract information from him regarding a Chinese government agent who they believe is working for the United States. Frustrated at his unwillingness to speak, the guards throw him back into his cell. Shortly thereafter, two American covert-ops soldiers break into the complex, killing a guard, in order to free Bauer from his cell. They lead him through an outdoor complex, to a concealed vehicle nearby. After a brief chase, they come to a dark field where the men tell Jack that they will have a transport ready to pick him up shortly. The two soldiers then summon a man by the name of Hong Wai, who had been concealed in the shadows of the field, to greet Jack. Hong Wai is immediately recognizable as one of the men that Jack had been questioned about earlier, regarding the mole in their government.

As Jack flinches in recognition of Hong, several flood lights come on, and Chinese military vehicles swarm on the scene. Cheng Zhi walks into the field and thanks Bauer for his help in identifying Hong, whom he had apparently suspected all along. Zhi then executes Hong with a single shot to the head, and thanks the covert-ops agents for their role in the set-up, promising them that money will be transferred to their Swiss bank accounts. The guards are then ordered to return Jack to his cell where he will continue to be held prisoner.

Incidentally, this is the only sequence of 24 not exclusively utilizing the real time aspect of the show, with the possible exception of the flashback at the end of Day 1.

Starring: Kiefer Sutherland (Jack Bauer), Tzi Ma (Cheng Zhi), and John Koyama (Hong Wai).

See article List of characters in 24.

This is a list of the main cast for Season 6.

Stars

• Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer
• Mary Lynn Rajskub as Chloe O'Brian
• D.B. Woodside as President Wayne Palmer
• James Morrison as Bill Buchanan
• Peter MacNicol as Tom Lennox
• Jayne Atkinson as Karen Hayes
• Carlo Rota as Morris O'Brian
• Eric Balfour as Milo Pressman
• Marisol Nichols as Nadia Yassir
• Regina King as Sandra Palmer

Recurring

• Roger Cross as Curtis Manning
• Rena Sofer as Marilyn Bauer
• Evan Ellingson as Josh Bauer
• Nick Jameson as Russian President Yuri Suvarov
• Paul McCrane as Graem Bauer
• Kari Matchett as Lisa Miller
• Tzi Ma as Cheng Zhi
• Rade Šerbedžija as Dmitri Gredenko
• Adoni Maropis as Abu Fayed
• Glenn Morshower as Aaron Pierce
• Kathleen Gati as Russian First Lady Anya Suvarov
• Chad Lowe as Reed Pollock
• Alexander Siddig as Hamri Al-Assad
• Michael Shanks as Mark Bishop
• Harry Lennix as Walid Al-Rezani
• Ricky Schroder as Mike Doyle

Special guest stars

• Powers Boothe as Vice President Noah Daniels
• James Cromwell as Phillip Bauer
• William Devane as James Heller
• Kim Raver as Audrey Raines
• Jean Smart as Martha Logan
• Gregory Itzin as Charles Logan

• Season six has ten main characters, more than any other season.
• Season six holds the record for longest time until a new director named at CTU, as Bill Buchanan was director until around 1:40 A.M. Season six also holds the record for fewest number of CTU directors, at 2.
• Milo Pressman is the only main character involved heavily in the narrative to die this season. Milo was also the only character in which the actor requested that the character gets killed off (Curtis Manning, a main character in seasons 4 and 5, also dies, but he was not a main character in season six.)
• Season six's finale is the second episode in the show's history to fade to black before going to the clock at the end, the other being the season finale of Season 1 after the death of Teri Bauer.
• The season ends with a silent clock for the third time in the six seasons it has been on, and it was the 6th overall.
• Seasons six and three are the only seasons that do not end with a last-minute plot twist (speculating that they are the end to significant trilogies)
• Due to a ratings drop and critical bashing of the season, Howard Gordon released a statement late in the season to say that Season 7 would be re-invented. The only aspects that will return for certain are the real time format and Jack Bauer.

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