Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) goes head to head with his former boss Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson) in the fourth-season special two-hour premiere of 24 on Sunday, Jan. 9, on Fox.

Time's not on your side when you're an actor on 24. As tonight's fourth season premiere demonstrates, no one is safe on the real-time thriller -- unless you're Kiefer Sutherland.

And then again, maybe not.

"Could Fox do it without us or without Kiefer?" asks creator-executive producer Joel Surnow. "The format could sustain it as long as they could keep the clock going and the story along with it."

For now, Sutherland's role as counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer appears secure -- if only because he's the sole regular returning as the new season picks up 18 months after last May's finale left off.

Fox is premiering 24 at 9 p.m. on W as a two-day, four-hour mini-series -- the first four hours in a single stab of adrenaline. Sort of like what Uma Thurman received in Pulp Fiction. Then, starting Jan. 17, the remaining hour-long episodes -- each consisting of an hour in the life of Bauer -- will air Mondays without repeats or pre-emptions. (For some reason, the show won't be seen on Global in Alberta, although sister stations elsewhere in the country are airing it.)

Gone are President David Palmer (David Haysbert) and Jack's danger-prone daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert). Also missing in action are CTU agent Tony (Carlos Bernard), who was arrested for treason at the end of last year; Tony's wife and fellow agent Michelle (Reiko Aylesworth); and Chase (James Badge Dale), Bauer's partner and Kim's boyfriend.

And because Palmer's scheming wife Sherry (Penny Johnson Jerald) was killed off last season, this year introduces fresh fiendish faces, including Nestor Serrano and Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo (The House of Sand and Fog) as a Middle Eastern couple who may be the architects of a terrorist attack.

Bauer isn't quite himself either. After kicking a heroin addiction (he shot up to get close to narco-terrorists), saving the world from a genetically-engineered virus and being fired from CTU by new chief, Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson), he's now working for U.S. Secretary of Defence James Heller (William Devane) and romancing Heller's daughter, Audrey(Kim Raver). He's actually happy.

"I think we can go back to year one with his wife dying at the end," says co-executive producer Jon Cassar about the shake-up. "It was amazing when we did that -- it was bold then and still is, to kill a main character. But in that way, killing her, we got a lot out of that character because it put Jack in a different place.

"This year, it's the same thing. If we had kept those characters the same, we'd end up repeating ourselves. We'd be writing ourselves into the same situation and it's hard enough to come up with stuff for Jack Bauer."

Not as hard, he adds, as telling actors they're being written out. "It's absolutely the hardest thing to do because the show is a pleasure to work on. Everyone is always disappointed. It's a fantastic place to work."

But because no one is safe, "no one ever took their job lightly. Everyone knows it will eventually happen. When they finally find out they're not coming back, they knew it was coming. I remember on the call sheet you see the actors by number. And No. 1 is always Kiefer Sutherland and it goes down from that in varying order. But if any one feels safe, they have to remember No. 2 was killed in the first year."

Not that they're all gone for good. Surnow confirms Tony and Michelle will return later in the season. "And we're hopefully close to a deal for Dennis to come back for a substantial story arc."

Not set for an appearance so far is Calgary-born Cuthbert, whose character received the most eye-rolling derision from fans and critics alike for her capacity to fumble ass backwards into immediate, improbable peril. (Remember the much-mocked cougar episode from season two?) Cassar admits the writers decided 24 worked best without her.

"Even when we put her in CTU (in the third season), we were criticized she was at CTU. It was a no-win situation. There just wasn't much more to do with her character."

"We don't have the luxury of other shows that can be on 10 years. They've got a great format and basically tell the same stories over and over again and no one ever really complains," Surnow says. "On our show, because of the format, people don't want to see things they saw in other seasons. There are macro-ideas that repeat -- like Jack being on his own. Or Jack illegally bearing down on a suspect. But we're unfortunately in the position that we don't have the right to steal from ourselves."

"There was a point where we'd ask how can we top (ourselves)," Cassar says. "Now it's at the point where it's just a matter of what's a good story and what's going to last 24 episodes. What can be a threat and create fear because the show has always been about fear. That's what drives it."

But while Kim may be gone, the show has generated more controversy over its depiction of an Arab-American family as a terrorist cell. At least one American-Islamic group has already expressed outrage over it.

"I respect their concerns," Surnow says. "Our position has always been that what you see at the beginning may not be the whole story. Again, I refer to The Sopranos, which I don't think represents the typical American-Italian family. There are not any references to religion in these episodes. And our own research has shown there are sleeper cells in the country. There's a reality to it, although we're not trying to make a statement.

"We've done four seasons. The first three seasons have had villains from different parts of the world. We had Slavic in the first season.

"In the second, we did have some radical Middle-Eastern terrorists, but ultimately the villain was a European oil guy. And in the third season it was narco-traffickers and then a former MIA agent. We're equal opportunity offenders."

With the notable exception of Canadians, that is. Since the first year, 24 has employed plenty of Canucks in front and behind the camera -- from Sutherland to Cuthbert to Leslie Hope, who played Jack's doomed wife, to Wendy Crewson, who had a dalliance with President Palmer last year. (Crewson herself commented that 24 is the most-watched Canadian TV show in history.)

Off screen, Cassar, who spoke to the Sun from Toronto where he was visiting for the holidays, reveals the first 13 episodes of the fourth season were directed by Canadians, himself included.

"It's amazing and to me and a little disappointing in a way that I could never work on that calibre of a show (in Canada)," he says.

One of the reasons for the influx of Canadian talent is that, prior to 24, Surnow produced the spy series La Femme Nikita in Toronto and came to know talent from north of the border.

"There's an obvious freshness (in casting Canadians) because we haven't seen them on American television," Surnow says. "There's a treasure trove of great talent there that hasn't been exposed. And maybe there's a realness to them too. Maybe it's the cold weather. There's a toughness to Canadian actors. They don't seem to concentrate on what they look like, on being overglamorized in a Hollywood way. Even Kiefer, as big a star as he is, has a real kind of earthy quality."

In addition to being the star, Sutherland has been one of the executive producers since the second season. But Cassar says the promotion is misleading -- that since 24's first hours, the 38-year-old actor has been a pivotal player behind the scenes.

"I don't think it's ever changed. He doesn't dial on and off -- he comes at it on one level. He's always been involved. He's very involved with the scripts. Being named an executive producer, I don't think it changed his involvement. Right from season one, he has been a driving force. He won't accept mediocrity."

Along with a new cast and plot, the fourth season of 24 marks another change -- a shift in timeslot from Tuesdays to Mondays, where it will face off against Everybody Loves Raymond. Surnow is undaunted by the competition, feeling confident that the show's fans will tune in.

"We're in our fourth season. We've sold into syndication. Our DVDs sell handsomely. We've done everything we need to do. The only thing nerve-wracking is making the show good," Surnow says, adding that 24 -- unlike many U.S. shows including The Sopranos -- has a huge global following.

"The show is massive around the world and that factors into things. It buys us a lot of goodwill (with Fox.) It's a big heroic story. I was surprised that The Sopranos don't translate in England, but it's considered too regional. We're more like a big (Jerry) Bruckheimer movie."

REVIEW

24 has always been the Red Bull of TV dramas.

Like that high-energy caffeine concoction, it's less about soothing the palette than pleasuring your more primitive appetites.

Thus fans of the show realize that while there may be the odd, ill-advised diversion along the way -- Jack Bauer's wife losing her memory in the first season, for example -- the end will justify the means. In this case, leaving you breathless and exhilarated.

So it's a relief to report the fourth season of 24 doesn't disappoint.

Moreover, the decision by Fox to air the first four episodes in two-hour blocks tonight and tomorrow should have the desired effect -- hooking viewers in one fell swoop.

Once again, Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer -- an anti-hero so unbound by rules and regulations he makes Andy Sipowitz look like Andy Griffith -- finds himself up against time and the odds in trying to avert a terrorist threat. When word first leaked that last year's entire cast -- except for Sutherland -- was being jettisoned, it raised more than a few eyebrows. But, in retrospect, the decision to essentially restart the show with a new cast was essential. It makes the series accessible for new viewers, while also keeping faithful followers off-guard. And after three years, the show's creators clearly know what works. The first three episodes screened by the Sun unspool with a charged ferocity. Adding welcome friction is Canadian Alberta Watson as CTU's new boss and Bauer's nemesis, while Shohreh Aghdashloo inspires spine-tingling shivers as the matriarch of a terrorist sleeper cell.

SUN RATING: 4 out of 5