SMALL SCREEN THE BUZZ ON TELEVISION.

Byline: - Compiled by Valerie Kuklenski

GO FOR THE GOLD: The 60th annual Golden Globe Awards air Sunday night on NBC, but E! is all over the story with nearly 'round the clock coverage that helps a viewer forget that they're just prizes given by a not-exactly-elite corps of reporters. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, whose ranks include both the respected and the amateur of international reporters covering entertainment, presents the Globes at 8 p.m. from the Beverly Hilton Hotel. E! gets viewers warmed up with a 7 a.m. repeat of Saturday night's ``Critics Choice Awards.'' Then at 9 a.m. the network trots out the 2001 Golden Globes edition of ``Fashion Police,'' followed at 10 a.m. by the 2002 edition. The breathless anticipation continues with ``E! News Weekend,'' which will surely include multiple references to the awards. Then comes the exhaustive (and exhausting) ``Countdown to the Red Carpet: The 2003 Golden Globe Awards,'' a six-hour chatfest with assorted experts and prognosticators. KNBC gets on board at 6 p.m. with a live-from-the-scene edition of ``Access Hollywood,'' while E! turns Joan and Melissa Rivers loose on the incoming celebrities with its two-hour ``Live From the Red Carpet.'' At 7 p.m. on KNBC, the network begins its own arrivals coverage anchored by Dick Clark, Lisa Ling and Nancy O'Dell. The main event starts at 8 and runs three hours with the possibility of a brief overrun (do you hear that, Oscar?). E! returns at 11 p.m. with its two-hour ``The Golden Globe Post Show,'' while KNBC yields the half hour to regular news. KNBC has one more hour of coverage at 11:35 p.m. with ``Backstage Access.'' Still not enough? E! repeats its post show beginning at 1 a.m.

THUMBS WAY DOWN: If anybody thinks film critics have it easy - free admission, all the popcorn you can eat, countless moviegoers hanging on your every word in print - think again. For all the award-worthy stuff they enjoy watching, critics sit through many more movies that are tragic wastes of studio budgets and film stock. It's those that get skewered with the nastiest adjectives in Roger Ebert's and Richard Roeper's ``The Worst of 2002'' special. The categories: Big Stars in Big Bombs, Bad Bonding, They're a Drag, Cast Away, No More McMovies, Retro Disasters and Wretched Remakes. The winners of the grand prize of the Absolute Worst Movies of the Year probably will become heavy favorites for the Golden Raspberry given out in March.

EBERT & ROEPER: THE WORST OF 2002, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, KABC, Channel 7.

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(1) JOAN & MELISSA RIVERS: Kissy-kissy ... NOT!

Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

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