Created by Joel Surnow (LA FEMME NIKITA, MIAMI VICE) and Robert Cochran (LA FEMME NIKITA, THE COMMISH), 24 entered its most exciting season yet in its fourth outing, with the stakes reaching ever-greater heights. Retaining its now-familiar format of unfolding in real time, with each episode representing one hour of a very dramatic day, the show follows Counter Terrorist Agent Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland). Bauer has rejoined the CTU and formed an uneasy alliance with director Erin Driscoll (Alberta Watson) after the secretary of defense, Jack Heller (William Devane), for whom he was working, is kidnapped. A train crash orchestrated by terrorists sets off a chain of events that Bauer, aided by Chloe O'Brien (Mary Lynn Rajskub), races to prevent. Narrowly avoiding an attack on the nation's nuclear plants, Bauer must contend with another assassination attempt on the president, as Bauer negotiates his intensifying relationship with Audrey (Kim Raver), Heller's daughter.