Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard, Jesse Spencer and Lisa Edelstein are back for the third season of Fox's House.

You'd think by now that Hugh Laurie would get that he's a big deal in America.

With House going into a third season as Fox and Global's No. 1 drama (it returns Tuesday night at 8 p.m.), the former Oxford grad should be one of the cockiest stars in television.

Not even close. Laurie was his same self-effacing, humble self last July at the Fox press tour party.

"Wow, that's close," he tells a reporter who thrusts her digital recorder almost into his mouth. "There's a minimal distance..." he starts to instruct, then resigns himself to the madness that is a press tour party scrum.

Yes, he'd heard that the show draws up to 25 million American viewers a week and roughly another 2.5 million in Canada. It could all go away at any minute, says the highly superstitious actor.

"We could make three bad decisions and suddenly we could be in trouble," he said. "There are a few ways to get it right and a billion ways to get it wrong. Suddenly, the word gets out and, 'Ah, yeah, I used to watch that show...' The tension goes out of it."

Despite Laurie's apprehension, there doesn't seem to be much risk that the tension is about to subside on House. His brilliant but cranky character, diagnostic genius Gregory House, underwent a life-altering experience at the end of last season. Shot by a disgruntled patient, he was patched up by fellow doctors Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) and James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard). They also pulled a fast one -- treating House's chronic leg injury -- and for the first time in years, House was walking without a limp.

Outraged at first, House is a new man in this week's episode, jogging and skateboarding like a teenager. Because this is House, however, it ain't gonna last.

"His life is threatened to be changed both physically and emotionally by that near death experience," Laurie said. "Although the changes that you see in him are not necessarily permanent." Seems the medical procedure that cured House's leg doesn't always last -- just like TV series success, as Laurie might add.

What does give him confidence is the hard work and dedication of House showrunner David Shore, the former Due South writer/producer from London, Ont., who likes to say that he's the second most successful writer from that city (behind back-to-back Oscar nominee Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash).

"David and his team of writers are very humble and hard working," said Laurie, who is quick to credit Shore for the show's success. "I'm simply doing his bidding. He's pulling my strings, as it were."

Shore also sets the restrained tone on the set. "Nobody went out and bought a Ferrari and assumed it's all going to be downhill from now on," said Laurie, adding that Shore "works harder than anybody and never goes home as far as I can tell."

Laurie could buy a Ferrari a week if he wanted one. According to several reports, Fox rewarded the actor with a hefty pay increase this summer, as much as $275,000 US per episode.

Does the big money put extra pressure on the actor to sustain House's hit status? The question cuts Laurie in half. He winces, squirms, looks to the Heavens, looks at his feet. Finally he mutters that, "We can report that the question left him totally embarrassed." Clearly, the answer is yes and why the hell did you ask it.

Switch the topic to something neutral, like why are British personalities so red hot in America right now, and a relieved Laurie comes back to the microphones. His old Blackadder pal Robbie Coltrane was at the press tour a few days earlier promoting BBC America's latest Cracker movie. Yes, it is ironic that two goofballs from that mad British comedy are now playing very dramatic characters, he said. Then there are the Simon Cowell and Cowell clones stealing all the best lines as reality show jurors in America. Do audiences on this side just love bad-ass Brits?

"I don't know the answer to that," says Laurie. "Usually the English person (on American TV) is more evil, I've noticed that. Thankfully, human beings are not constructed that way."

Did he feel snubbed in any way at not receiving a second Emmy nomination as Best Actor in a series? Poppycock, Laurie harrumphs. He's more chuffed that the show was nominated. "Seems to me a Best Show nomination is a much bigger thing. I feel very gratified by that. As for my own vanity, bah."

Finally, why is House such a hit? How has this cranky character captured America? Laurie ponders and gives it a shot. "I think of the House audience as being very, very smart and actually humane," he says. "I'm talking about 25 million people; I haven't met all of them yet. But the impression I have is they don't condemn someone out of hand on the evidence of the one thing he did. They are sophisticated people and they know we all have, in a very glib way, our good days and bad days. House seems to have a lot of bad days strung together."

Although that's not what makes brings people back each week, adds Laurie, sounding almost boastful for once. "There are some wonderful qualities, too. I think he is heroic. He's a heroic character."