braveheart
The timing of 24's release certainly didn't hurt the ratings, as it was Nov 2001 - just two months after 9/11.
I'd yet to get into the Sopranos, so other than comedy series like Seinfeld, etc. I really wasn't much into dramas. Those first couple of episodes of 24 were brilliant. They immediately got me hooked.
So for me, 24 was really the first show in my adult life that compelled me to set aside time each Tuesday evening to watch the live airing in real-time. Not sure when I got DVR... but I don't think it was for several years after that when the option became available to record it via my cable service. Yet I didn't mind the commercials at the time because the show was that good. It was the quickest hour in cable tv history. lol
Some really good creative writing, good acting, and some interesting twists and turns to keep me into it. But near the end I was ready for it to be over. At some point the storylines just all seemed to resemble the ones from the following season, just a different set of villains. But yeah, it was popular in our household too.