Fox scheduling chief Preston Beckman told Variety: "We've got a plan to keep Fox vibrant right through May sweep and beyond," Beckman said. "We had to make some tough decisions quickly for a variety of reasons."

The delay in "24" could mean that the season starts later in the spring, but the safer bet is that it will skip this year entirely. If that occurs, the show's seventh season wouldn't start until 2008.

This announcement comes as the writer's strike enters Day Four. The WGA has initiated Strike Rule #8, which stipulates that members turn in all of the scripts that they were working on to the WGA. The WGA rule book states "The filing of these materials will allow the Guild to determine the exact status of material at the beginning of a strike and may protect you in the event allegations of strike-breaking or scab-writing are made against you or another writer."

Some studios believe that they own the scripts that are in progress and do not want the WGA to have any access to the scripts. Earlier this year, warning letters were sent to writers and their agents informing them that if their scripts were submitted to the WGA under this program that the studios would pursue a lawsuit against the writers themselves.

This leaves the writers in the awkward situation of either taking on a legal battle with big studios or facing the consequences of not obeying the rules of the WGA. This split of the members of the WGA marks the first breakup of their solidarity after giving overwhelming approval to the strike.