'23:50'

I was running late getting to the TV Sunday night for the start of “24.” We had dinner at my sister’s house. By the time we got home and got the kids to bed, it was past 8 p.m.

You just can’t start watching a “24” episode in the middle of the show. I already had the VCR set up to tape it just in case and I figured I’d wait to watch the two-hour season premiere at 10 p.m.

But I lucked out. I turned the TV on just to make sure it was taping properly and to my surprise, “24” hadn’t started yet. Football ran late on Fox.

Unfortunately, fans of the Jack Bauer Power Hour in Columbia, S.C. were not so lucky. They were outraged when their Fox affiliate’s 10 p.m. newscast started on time, cutting off the last 10 minutes of the show.

Bad move. “24” viewers are fanatical when it comes to their favorite show. Like this guy:

Paul Teeple, 43, of Columbia, hadn’t missed a second of “24” from the start — even from 2001 to 2003, while working in Nicaragua for his employer, an international development nonprofit organization. He had friends record it for him.

“I’m mad, I’m upset, and I’m having a hard time rationalizing this,” he said. “This is the one TV show you wait for and wait for, and there’s always a cliffhanger — but this is too much.

Another fan put it best:

“Somebody has lost their mind,” said Steve Arnold, a fan who was watching the show at his Irmo home.

I know all too well that it doesn’t take much to get the phone ringing off the hook at a TV station with calls from irate, crazy viewers. I’m sure the folks WACH got an earful.