Catching up on the headlines after a week off enjoying the weather:

Fox to end “24”: Fox’s announcement that this is the final season of “24” is better than just about every idea the show has had this repetitive season.

This season had an extremely bumpy start and is loaded with situations and characters that are difficult to care about, despite the excellent cast.

The plot lines seem too familiar, emotionally phony or downright silly.

After a recent column noting that I was just about done with “24,” there was a decent twist involving a member of the inner circle of the Mideast leader at the center of this season’s nuclear plot line.

But most of this season’s episodes haven’t approached the level of the better seasons of this annual thrill ride.

The big question now is whether Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) will survive in the May series finale so more money can be made in a feature film down the road.

Creatively, I’d root for Bauer to die heroically. But the quest for money is more likely to mean that Jack will survive to live another day in the theaters.

Bucky Phillips captured again: It is hard to imagine that many people outside Western New York would have been drawn to Thursday’s series premiere of A&E’s “Fugitive Chronicles: True Stories of Life on the Run, featuring Ralph “Bucky” Phillips.

The hour reconstructed the 2006 manhunt for Phillips by using his own written words (narrated by an actor). An extensive interview with New York State Police Capt. Steve Nigrelli, who was played by an actor in the re-created scenes, really made him the star of the docudrama. He explained the difficulties of capturing the elusive Phillips, which included an ill-timed lightning storm.

Even though the hour was dressed up with re-created scenes, fast-paced photography and dramatic music, the program was a little lifeless for something that was supposed to be suspenseful.

Phillips, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole after killing one state trooper and wounding two others, eventually surrendered without the fight that many expected.

“He’s a nothing,” concluded Nigrelli. “He’s a nothing. That is what I remember about Phillips. He’s a nothing.”

That is certainly true. But “he’s a nothing” who got another hour of national television, which is disturbing on some levels. While the hour celebrated the state troopers involved in the manhunt, it also meant increased attention for Phillips.

The crying game: Saturday’s CBS feature on the 18-day bike ride that Buffalo Bills Hall of Famer Joe De- Lamielleure took with two former Michigan State teammates to raise money for an orphanage in Mexico was even more moving than expected.

Of course, it was helped by the narration of the sentimental Dick Enberg, who received his own farewell tribute between Final Four basketball games.

Always a good interview, DeLamielleure supplied some memorable lines in the feature.

When asked to join teammates John Shinsky and Eljay Bowron on the ride, JoeDsaid he thought: “I don’t even know how to ride a bike. If I have to, I’ll jog across the border.”

He also said: “They say grown men don’t cry. That’s a lie.”

Truthfully, I cried while watching the feature.

By the way, Enberg is now the voice of the San Diego Padres and has ended his run calling NCAA basketball games. However, he still is expected to do some NFL games on CBS this fall.

“Lost” repeats are missed: Am I the only one who misses the enhanced episodes of “Lost” that ran for weeks before original episodes on Tuesday and explained some of the confusing things about the previous week’s episodes? The low-rated encores have been lost to “Dancing With the Stars.”

“Ugly” ending: To those who asked: The series finale of “Ugly Betty” airs at 10 p. m. April 14.

A home run: “The Natural,” the classic baseball movie mostly filmed here that starred Robert Redford, is out in Blu-ray today.

Pretty good payday for Buffalo woman: Julia Roberts, the local attorney with the movie star name, walked away with $10,000 in a recent episode of the syndicated version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” She earned that figure after using a lifeline of a celebrity question asked by “Project Runway’s” Tim Gunn: As Sarah Palin would certainly know, Kazuo Kawasaki is a Japanese designer of high-end what? a) shoes b) suits c) eyeglasses d) hats. The answer was C. But you knew that.

The question that led Roberts to walk away was: The coarse “striking surface” on a match box is typically coated with the red form of what element? a) magnesium b) phosphorous c) mercury d) iodine. She didn’t know that the answer was “b” and walked away with her 10Gs.

Lydia will be back: Inquiring minds want to know: Where is Lydia Dominick, who had been doing traffic on Channel 2 while Thea Tio was recovering from a skiing injury. Channel 2 General Manager Jim Toellner said Dominick left traffic when Tio came back to work. He added that Dominick will be back soon in some unspecified new capacity.