• by Paul Gough , February 26, 2003

Three months before the latest season finishes, Fox announced Wednesday afternoon that it had renewed 24 for a third season and would bring back Joe Millionaire for a second run.

The critically acclaimed drama, which premiered this season with a commercial-free episode sponsored by Ford, has grown to become the fifth highest-rated drama among adults 18-49.

“The show continues to raise the bar for television dramas and the ratings continue to rise, even during this competitive sweeps,” said Fox TV Entertainment President Gail Berman.

The hour-long drama, starring Kiefer Sutherland, has been boosted in recent weeks by an 8 p.m. lead-in from American Idol since the second season premiered in January. Berman said 24’s ratings, which started off slow in November 2001, was also helped by the release of the first-season DVD and repeats on FX.

“It has the quality to be a home-run success,” Berman said.

She said that by making the announcement now, it gives the show’s producers the time they need to put together a quality third season. Berman said the show would continue its 24-hour format but declined to say if Sutherland would return for the third season.

“I can’t tell you anything about that because that potentially gives away the storyline, and I’m not into doing that,” she said.

Berman didn’t think that the show, which has depended on the real-time telling of the story, would suffer from a third season.

“We’re cautious about making any announcements about anything, so we feel confident that we will have a third fantastic season,” she said.

On Wednesday, Fox also confirmed that it would bring back Joe Millionaire sometime in the future.

“The plans for the next Joe Millionaire is already under way,” said Fox TV Chairman Sandy Grushow.

Although it defies some imagination that another run of Joe Millionaire could fly – not the least of reasons being that a potential cast would probably be wise to the possibility of deception – Berman said Fox’s alternative-programming executives have ideas.

“We’ve cracked the way to do it,” she said.

Grushow said Joe Millionaire obviously can’t be done identically but he was confident that it would be successful when it returns, possibly as early as the fall.

Fox executives were tight-lipped about the format or many other details.

“Obviously there will be men, there will be women, there will be romance, there will be money at stake. You have to look at it like a sequel in the movie business. Sometimes there are new cast members that are brought in, sometimes old cast members depart, but by and large when the audience comes, in, they’re satisfied,” Grushow said.

Fox promises it won’t be a revamping of its replacement in the time slot, Married by America, and that when it appears again, there won’t be a name change. It will return as Joe Millionaire.

“If it was something entirely different, we wouldn’t call it Joe Millionaire,” Berman said.