24N24

On May 8th, Cindy, Katie and Megan will be out for the weekend, so I will have the ranch all to myself. What to do?

I have always wanted to do a 24N24 marathon – watch one season of 24 in a day. I would choose a day, and then begin watching a season and start the marathon at the same time that the show begins.

Using my trusty IMDB, the seasons of 24 start in the following hours:

Day 1	12:00 AM
Day 2	8:00 AM
Day 3	1:00 PM
Day 4	7:00 AM
Day 5	7:00 AM
Day 6	6:00 AM
Day 7	8:00 AM
Day 8	4:00PM

I think Day 8 is safely out, as it is the current season and will not be completed until May 24th. And because of the nature of the Marathon, I think I will rule out Day 3.

What scares me about the ones that are starting after 6:00 AM is going through the night without nodding off and falling asleep. I think that I would have enough momentum to go from 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM, and the 9:00 PM back to 12:00 AM seems doable.

Day 1 it is.

The next thing to consider is the timing. On broadcast TV, the episodes are 1 hour with commercials. On DVD, they are about 40 minutes. 40 * 24 = 960/60 = 16 hours. That takes 8 hours off of the marathon. If I started at midnight, I would finish around 4:00 pm.

But, is that in “the spirit” of a 24N24? There would be something cool about start at 12:00 and finishing the next day at 12:00!

Since the actual viewing time is 16 hours, I’ve broken that down into four blocks. I worked out the start and finish of the season matches up with the show and placed in 8 hours worth of breaks (Food, get out of the house, cat nap, etc.)

So, here is my initial schedule:

Again, I am taking anyone who wishes to sponsor me with caffeine products (coffee, five hour energy) and if you want to drop by and watch a block or two (or three or four) feel free!!