NEW SEASON OF "24" KICKS OFF WITH SPECIAL TWO-HOUR PREMIERE SUNDAY, JAN. 9 ON FOX

Series Moves to Monday Nights Beginning Jan. 10

FOX's award-winning series 24 will kick off its fourth season of clock-stopping suspense with an explosive two-hour season premiere Sunday, Jan. 9 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). This special Sunday-night broadcast will air on the same day as the NFC Wild Card game on FOX. 24's regular time period premiere will be Monday, Jan. 10 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), as previously announced.

The intense series will then unfold on a weekly basis without repeats or preemptions all the way until the heart-stopping season finale.

In season three of 24, Jack (Kiefer Sutherland), who was in charge of a special field operations unit of the Counter Terrorist Unit, fought to stop a viral terrorism threat before it could kill millions of people.

Season four begins 18 months later with the episode "Day 4: 7:00 am � 8:00 am." CTU is now headed by Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson, "La Femme Nikita"), a steely government agent who made firing Jack one of her first priorities upon taking over. After the explosion of a commuter train, Jack, who is now working for Secretary of Defense James Heller (William Devane, "Knots Landing"), while secretly romantically involved with Heller's married daughter Audrey (Kim Raver, "Third Watch"), suddenly finds himself heading back to CTU for a meeting with Driscoll on Heller's behalf.

Also featured will be Nestor Serrano ("The Day After Tomorrow") as Middle Eastern businessman Navi Araz, Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo ("The House of Sand and Fog") as his wife, Dina, and Jonathan Ahdout ("The House of Sand and Fog") as their son, Behrooz.

Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, 24 will retain its unique format in the new season. Each episode will cover one hour of real time and the season's entire story will take place during one day, so that viewers again can follow characters as they live through a momentous day that none of them will ever forget.

24 is a production of Real Time Productions and Imagine Television in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Surnow, Cochran, Brian Grazer, Howard Gordon and Evan Katz are the executive producers. Sutherland is a co-executive producer.