EDITORIAL YEAR OF THE TRIALS GET READY FOR THE NEW REALITY TV SHOWS OF 2004.

THE new year is sure to produce many big headlines from ongoing terrorist threats to the war in Iraq, not to mention a presidential election.

But, more than anything else, 2004 looks like it will be the year of the Courtroom Drama - and do we have an idea on how to speed up the judicial process!

With more than a dozen high-profile criminal proceedings expected in 2004 or early 2005, the new reality television shows won't be about finding a mate or surviving a couple of weeks in the Australian Outback without a credit card.

In what some are already speculating will be the Trial of this Century, Saddam Hussein faces charges of a multitude of crimes against humanity. The outcome of his trial will have lasting ramifications on the future of the Middle East, and will no doubt rivet the attention of the world.

Still, despite its political and historical significance, it's unlikely that one despotic dictator can compete head to head with a king - the King of Pop, that is.

Michael Jackson is expected to end up in a Santa Barbara courtroom to face charges that he engaged in lewd acts with a child. Expect a media circus to make the O.J. Simpson murder trial look like a rural county fair.

And when Jackson's trial goes into recess, we can tune in to the trial of Kobe Bryant, who was charged with sexual assault last summer, or the trials of accused lady killers Robert Blake, Scott Peterson and Phil Spector. Then there's homemaker-businesswoman Martha Stewart, who faces federal charges of shady stock selling.

If that's not enough, Glen Campbell, George Clinton and Elizabeth Smart's kidnappers will keep viewers entertained.

So how can we make sure justice moves along quickly? It's clear we could really use the help of TV's Judge Judy!

Under normal circumstances, the trials will proceed with the typical grating slowness, drawing out the writs and briefs and motions while tying up hours of our time and costing the legal system millions. Since these trials are sure to be televised anyhow, why not make them as TV-friendly as possible?

That's where the no-nonsense, afternoon court show doyenne comes in. A real judge with years of experience in court and in front of the camera, Judge Judy's sure to wrap the trials up in nice half-hour chunks, all while dispensing real legal justice and common-sense wisdom.

We can hear her now: ``Saddam. Don't give me your Western-imperialism crap. You knew it was wrong to oppress your people, slaughter the Kurds, invade Kuwait, but you did it anyway. Shame on you.''

Well, maybe we'll rethink that idea.

In any case, it's sure to be an exciting year of courtroom drama, with salacious details, gasps from the audience and testimony painful to hear.

And while it all might seem like just another slate of pseudo-reality shows, beyond the glitz of the screen are real questions of law, real stories of horrendous brutality toward fellow humans and real verdicts that could result in even more deaths.

Whatever the results from these courtroom dramas, they're sure to have deadly serious consequences on not just the lives of a few individuals, but possibly on the shape of history itself.