Casting Couch: Cherry Jones Elected to Presidency on "24"

24 has elected its first female president.

Supporting a rumor I had heard last week (which FOX, via the Hollywood Reporter, still refused to confirm), Season Seven of beleaguered drama 24 will feature its first female president and has cast Cherry Jones.

Producers on the series had been weighing creating a female president for the series, which returns for its seventh season in January, after a season that many--both viewers and critics (myself included)--felt was creatively lacking.

No word on whether the early rumors that indicated the female president would be living at the White House with a husband and child are still true or if these characters have been removed.

The Tony Award-winning Jones, best known for her work as an acclaimed stage actor, has also been featured in films such as Ocean's Twelve, Signs, Cradle Will Rock, and The Village.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: How I Met Your Mother/The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS); Age of Love (NBC); Everybody Hates Chris/All of Us (CW); Wife Swap (ABC); Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (FOX)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Age of Love (NBC); Girlfriends/The Game (CW); CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock (ABC; 9-11 pm); Hell's Kitchen (FOX)

10 pm: CSI: Miami (CBS); Dateline (NBC)

What I'll Be Watching

9 pm: Big Love on HBO.

HBO's polygamist family drama Big Love is back. On tonight's episode ("Good Guys and Bad Guys"), Margene's mother--who seems unaware her daughter is a polygamist--visits the Henricksons and catches Bill in a liplock with Barb, Bill plays Roman and Hollis against one another, Barb picks up Wanda from the hospital, and Frank comes home, possibly none too pleased that it was his daughter-in-law who poisoned him.

9 pm: Hell's Kitchen.

No, I don't know why I am still watching this train wreck of a culinary competition. On tonight's episode, the five remaining contestants are merged into one worse-than-ever team, but just when they've finally come together, they're forced to compete against one another in an individual challenge where they must present dishes to a rather discerning clientèle: 100 high school students.