The star of one of FOX’s biggest TV hits has given network execs a huge sigh of relieve and they have give him one heck of an incentive to stay on.

Kiefer Sutherland just inked a very satisfying three year deal for his show “24” that will put him into that special category that only a few television stars have been able to achieve. Sutherland will be getting something within eight-figures for keeping the action thriller’s clock ticking for at least three more seasons.

Not only will this nice little package net him those big bucks, but his involvment in the show has also been given a gigantic boost. Sutherland will now also wear the executive producer’s hat giving him even more control of the program’s direction and feel. With people like him, Joel Surnow, Robert Cochran, Howard Gordon, Evan Katz and Manny Coto on that front line, “24’s” next three should continue to be as gripping a storytelling as it has been in the past.

Sutherland will be bringing some of that same political intrique and high tension drama to the big screen later this year as he stars opposite Michael Douglas and Kim Basinger in “The Sentinel,” a story about a traitor within the Secret Service whose mission it is to kill the President of the United States.