AS IT HAPPENS, A&E GETS THE BIG STORY.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

`MINUTE BY MINUTE,' a documentary series from A&E examining disasters and other splashy news stories precisely - more or less - as they played out, debuted last October, when viewers interested in reality were still pretty much glued to CNN. It didn't help that one of the first episodes scheduled focused on - oops - the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, an unfortunate bit of timing indeed.

The series returns with new episodes that show the format to be a viable, if highly malleable, one, capable of covering events that run the gamut from intense human interest to shocking breaking news to the all- American art form of bread-and-circuses. At its best, ``Minute by Minute'' documents incomprehensible courage, but its excursions into shlockier realms are pretty entertaining, as well.

Tonight's episode is more a day-by-day or even month-by-month proposition, covering Dr. Jerri Nielson's 1999 battle with breast cancer while she was stationed veritable eons away from conventional rescue at a research center at the South Pole. Stranded at a remote Antarctic outpost, Nielsen discovered a lump in her breast growing at an alarming rate in early 1999; due to the exigencies of weather patterns, she was considered unreachable for months.

This didn't prevent a daring airdrop of materials to help her perform a biopsy on herself along with chemotherapy medicines, nor a later, equally improbable, rescue via a plane equipped with skis on its landing gear (through it all, she attended to the medical needs of the rest of the South Pole-based crew).

Next week, O.J. Simpson's nefarious low-speed chase is essayed. This episode seems fairly easy to assemble - just throw together some of the copious amounts of footage available from that day, and toss in a few interviews, many of which seem pretty specious - reporters from tabloid-news programs and folks who watched the spectacle on TV are featured, along with policemen who participated in the chase, as are relatives of the victims Denise Brown and Kim Goldman. Still, it credibly re-creates a day in which the entire nation sort of went crazy.

Later this month, the stakes are raised considerably, as the 1981 day President Ronald Reagan was shot is remembered. Administration officials Ed Meese, Alexander Haig and Casper Weinberger are among those interviewed, along with ABC News employees that covered the unthinkable event (alas, news anchor Frank Reynolds' infamous on-camera meltdown is not shown).

Overall, ``Minute by Minute'' credibly re-creates the sense of urgency that attended each event. Some might find the show a bit on the exploitative side, but its dramatic sense of storytelling is unerring.

MINUTE BY MINUTE - Three stars

What: Documentary series examining famous news events as they unfolded.

Where: A&E.

When: 10 p.m. Wednesdays.