SATURDAY 8 P.M. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, CBS. You know the drill.

SATURDAY 8 P.M. It's a Wonderful Life, NBC. Turner's gang has apparently handed the baton to NBC for this showing of George Bailey's story.

SATURDAY 9 P.M. Ends of the Earth, Travel Channel. "New Zealand: The Royal Tour." Join New Zealand's Prime Minister for a royal tour of this land of extremes. Climb the snowy southern alps, jet boat in just four centimeters of water, bungee jump in this sport's native country and rappel straight into a lost world. Shouldn't the PM be doing, like, PM stuff instead of conducting tours?

SATURDAY 10 P.M. A Twisted Mind: The Andrew Luster Story, A&E. Bill Kurtis examines the circumstances and events surrounding the dramatic capture and return of fugitive cosmetics heir Andrew Luster. In January 2003, he fled the U.S. just days before the guilty verdict in his trial was announced. He has been sent to California's Wasco State Prison to begin serving a 124-year prison sentence for raping three women. His trust fund should be given to more deserving, (and less knot-headed) young people.

SUNDAY 9 P.M. Punk'd, MTV. Join Ashton Kutcher and his band of pranksters as they take aim on more unsuspecting celebrities in this season's finale of the hidden camera prank show. This one is confusing as Kutcher tries to "punk" Jamie Kennedy, who is in turn chosen Kutcher as a mark. The whole thing is caught on camera by Peter Funt.

WEDNESDAY 8 P.M. Nubia: The Forgotten Kingdom, Discovery. In the hot, desert sands of Northern Africa, a powerful kingdom thrived for thousands of years along the upper Nile. Powerful kings and queens built splendid monuments and buried their dead in the Pyramids. But this wasn't Egypt, it was Nubia. Now, after centuries of neglect, archaeologists Julie Andersen and Salah Ahmed have discovered Dangeil, a 2,000-year-old Nubian city buried beneath mounds of red brick rubble, nine hours north of Khartoum. The Egyptians must have had better publicists.

WEDNESDAY 10 P.M. Failed Inventions, The History Channel. It's a salute to the dreamers and schemers who brought the world an odd assortment of flawed ideas -- like flying, swimming and jet-powered automobiles, flying rocket belts and radium-filled clothes that promised to inflate the owner's sagging love life. There's also a look into the minds of the off-kilter geniuses who thought up these off-the-mark concepts. Some tinkerers' musings were merely ahead of their time and deemed flops during their lifetimes. Others were just plain bad.

NEWS & NOTES: CBS is taking applications for Survivor 9 which will air in fall of 2004. Head to CBS.com for details. ... HBO has turned off Project Greenlight. ... John Corbett (ex-Sex in the City, ex-Lucky) will do a pilot for ABC, according to The Hollywood Reporter.