Even on "24," where characters have been dropping like flies of late, nobody has seemed safer than Jack Bauer.
Oh, sure, the guy who plays him — Kiefer Sutherland — has been saying for the past couple of seasons that he thought the show could go on without Jack. He's even made noises about, perhaps, leaving the show at some point.
But not any time soon. Sutherland has just signed a mega-deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television to not only continue acting in the series through 2009 (if it goes that far), but to develop and (hopefully) produce other shows for the studio.
The Fox network has already renewed "24" for next season; Sutherland is committed to the show for two additional seasons beyond that. Reportedly, he'll be paid somewhere between $30 million and $40 million per season as an actor/executive producer of the show. And that doesn't take into account the possible revenues if his Fox-affiliated production company can land a series on a network.
Not bad for a guy whose acting career was pretty much stuck in neutral before he landed on "24."
"I'm committed to the show as long as I feel that we're moving forward," Sutherland told a gathering of TV critics. "And I'm committed to the show as long as an audience will allow me to do it. I think they'll be very clear in the end, as will you all, when (the show) is no longer effective."
Logically, you'd think that "24's" writers couldn't possibly top what's going on this season. But the same was true of the first, second, third and fourth seasons.
"I think the show is working," Sutherland said. "I think the character is growing on many levels. I think one thing that we're all discovering is that every season has impacted another, and the character has grown, and the character is allowed to carry with him what he has suffered the year before."
Viewers certainly haven't tired of the show. It's up 13 percent in total viewers and viewers 18-49 and 15 percent in viewers 18-34 — demographics extremely important to advertisers (and extremely lucrative for networks) — from last season.
Of course, knowing that Jack will be back gives us a pretty good idea of who will prevail in his latest battle — exposing the current man in the White House, President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin) as the traitor that he is. But the fun of "24" isn't dependent upon the destination, it's the ride that's thrilling.
SUTHERLAND HAS LEARNED a few things over the years on "24," including what to wear when chances are your character is going to have the same clothes on for all 24 episodes — episodes that take months to film.
"At the end of the first year, I realized it was better to be too hot in the summer than too cold in the winter," he said.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com