Tonight FOX is airing the pilot episode of Tim Kring’s new drama Touch ahead of the show’s official March 19 premiere. Kiefer Sutherland (24) stars as Martin Bohm, a man who is estranged from his autistic son. In Touch, the Heroes creator tells an emotionally and spiritually uplifting story about a mute child who communicates with numbers and discovers patterns that connect seemingly unrelated events around the world. Though the show will take place in a myriad of locales and touch the lives of strangers, at the heart of this series is the relationship between Sutherland’s character and his gifted son. Watch the extended trailer once and you should immediately start anticipating tonight’s one-hour preview event. And then the wait until March will become all the more unbearable.

Touch airs tonight at 9PM on FOX.

Update: The ratings are in and it turns out many people were touched by Sutherland’s new show last night. The Touch pilot attracted 11.9 million viewers and scored a 3.9/10 among adults 18-49. This makes it the second highest rated new drama series this TV season. (ABC’s Once Upon a Time premiere still remains the highest rated drama series this season so far: 12.8 million viewers, 4.0 demo rating among the 18-49 crowd.) This bodes extremely well for Kring’s latest. People are positively buzzing about the show, and anticipation is high for the spring premiere. Did Touch grip you last night? Spill your thoughts in the comments section below.