The first focuses on a mercenary group, led by Ira Gaines, in their efforts to control Bauer by kidnapping his wife and daughter, blackmailing him to kill Senator Palmer.

Fox initially ordered only 13 episodes; the successful rescue at the end of the season's first half was planned as a series finale in the event that the show was not renewed.

The season focuses on presidential candidate David Palmer, and the repeated attempts on his life prevented by Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer, who becomes personally involved when the assassins kidnap his wife Teri and daughter Kim in an attempt to blackmail Bauer.

Forced to go rogue from the agency, Bauer gets assistance from Nina Myers and eventually Tony Almeida as they attempt to identify a mole in CTU helping Gaines.

After the first assassination attempt fails, he remembers Bauer, and eventually the two meet and begin to work together to take down the men who hired Gaines, Andre and Alexis Drazen.

Two years prior, to the day, Bauer was sent as part of a classified team to Kosovo on the orders of a Senate subcommittee headed by Palmer to kill Victor Drazen, Slobodan Milošević's "shadow."

Editors originally wanted the boxes showing separate characters to overlap but Stephen Hopkins decided not to do this.

[25] Writers Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran originally planned for Teri to survive, but half-way through the season, they decided that a happy ending would not be as satisfying.

The trailer announces that David Palmer may become the first black U.S. president and shows Jack Bauer learning about the assassination attempt and corruption within his agency.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Brimming with tension and political intrigue, 24 successfully introduces its unique, high-concept format and a compelling hero worth watching in Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer.