Actor KIEFER SUTHERLAND has denied his hit show 24 helped Democrat BARACK OBAMA to his landslide victory at the recent U.S. election.
The Illinois senator will become the first black president of the U.S. when he takes office in January (08) after triumphing in the 4 November (08) vote.
Dennis Haysbert, who played President David Palmer in five seasons of 24, had previously claimed that his character contributed to Obama's success, by "opening the public's minds" to a black president.
But Sutherland doesn't agree. He says, "You don't honestly believe that our show helped get the first African-American into the White House do you? All we simply did is look to the future.
"You have a huge African-American population and it was just a matter of time before they were represented politically by a president.
"We have a female president in season seven. You have a 52 per cent population of women and we can clearly see it is just a matter of time before we have a female president."