24 Television Program

In retrospect, it was inevitable: Monday night on "24," conspirators working within the White House got close to President Wayne Palmer (D.B. Woodside) and blew him up real good. Whether Palmer is still alive is something to be discovered next week, but savvy viewers might have wondered about Palmer's continued good health weeks ago when it was revealed that his vice president was being played by a bigger-name actor (Powers Boothe).

Is it possible you can save the world in a single day only so many times before they all start to seem the same? Jack Bauer might be able to find ways to stay creatively engaged in his job, but for the at-home viewer, this season of "24" is beginning to suffer from deja vu. Once again the United States faces a domestic nuclear threat, and on Monday night it was once again revealed that a traitor was working inside the Counter Terrorist Unit's ranks.

A friend showed me recently how to program my TiVo remote so that I can skip ahead in 30-second increments with one touch of a button. I had been living in relative darkness, working the arrow buttons, fast-forwarding to the first, second or third power, watching a "Grey's Anatomy" episode in 10 minutes (medical-medical-medical, Meredith-whatever, Burke-whatever, stop to see if George and Izzie have sex).

For all those critics who fretted over "24's" seeming lack of a social conscience, Monday night's episode (midnight to 1 a.m.) could only have been good news. Here, finally, the show that glorified torture and made a mockery of due process was confronting a truly important life lesson: the danger of dating in the workplace.

JACK BAUER, America's favorite counter-terrorism agent with the violent code of honor and the weird sadomasochistic bent, is squaring off against a stealthy and unforgiving new enemy. His fans. After peaking in the ratings last year, Fox's thriller "24" has been getting dumped on by seemingly everyone in this, its sixth season.

The lesson we can take away from Monday night's episode of "24" ("2 a.m.-3 a.m.") might be this: Ask long enough and eventually ye shall receive. Finally, after weeks of begging and whining on the part of "24" fans everywhere, the Powers That Be at the Fox series saw fit to give us the return of James Cromwell as Jack Bauer's dad.

Jack Bauer may or may not save the world, but Kiefer Sutherland's secret agent is already doing his part to buck up Fox's midseason. Sunday's season premiere of "24" was the drama's most-watched episode ever, with an average of 17 million viewers, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. The debut was undoubtedly helped in many markets by an NFL playoff between Carolina and Chicago that ran long.

IN a TV world where even Tony Soprano can get shot in the gut in the season opener, nobody is safe. And if Fox's "24" is any indication, not only can any character go at any time, there likely won't be a lack of company. "Not Edgar!"

Actor Kiefer Sutherland, who stars in the Fox drama "24," has signed a production deal with 20th Century Fox Television to develop and be executive producer of series programming that can be shopped around to any television network through his newly created production company banner. The deal also calls for Sutherland to remain in his role as Jack Bauer on "24" while being named an executive producer on the drama alongside Joel Surnow, Robert Cochran, Howard Gordon and Evan Katz.

It was spy versus spy on TV Monday night. One's coming back next year, the other isn't. Fox won the last Monday of the 2005-06 season in the key "adults ages 18 to 49" demographic with the two-hour, fifth-season finale of "24." The drama starring Kiefer Sutherland as a gruff counterterrorism agent delivered a 5.4 rating/14 share in the demo, with 13.5 million total viewers, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research.