It Was A Precedent-Setting Year For Tv

5. "Survivor" versus "Friends." Though it's slipped a bit for its third installment, it's hard to underestimate the seismic impact of "Survivor" going head-to-head with "Friends"--and winning. After all, "Friends" is the No. 1 sitcom on TV and the cornerstone of NBC's "must see" Thursday. "Survivor" didn't even exist two years ago. For a while, we thought reality TV was going to run the ailing sitcom genre off the dial. That's not going to happen--as the recent collapse of "The Mole," "Temptation Island" and the rest demonstrates. But reality is not going away, either. And as long as "Survivor" keeps pushing "Friends" to get better and better, we're glad to have them both around.

6. Carol Burnett and friends. Almost 30 million people tuned in to watch outtakes from the old "Carol Burnett Show," making it the fourth-most-watched TV program of the year. This is what you might call video comfort food for a shell-shocked country, and it's not the only meal on the menu. An "I Love Lucy" special pulled in more than 17 million viewers and Michael Jackson's concert attracted 23 million. Even the "Facts of Life" reunion was a hit. We told you this was a depressing year.

7. Eminem and Elton. They were the oddest couple of the year: rock's reigning bad boy and Britain's biggest queen. It's hard to say why Elton John agreed to perform with Eminem at this year's Grammy Awards, or, for that matter, what the homophobic Eminem was thinking when he hugged the openly gay John. Still, it was the most controversial TV moment of the year. If Em ends up marrying new girlfriend Kim Basinger, do you think Elton will be the best man?

8. "Bernie Mac." Bernie Mac is the anti-Cosby, a man who rants and raves and taunts his foster kids with threats like "I'm 'a bust your head till the white meat shows." Does he mean it? Of course not. Like parents everywhere, Bernie often puts on a tough-guy pose to keep the kids from seeing they've got him wrapped around their little fingers. Still, the lovable curmudgeon is a rare original voice in the vast sitcom wasteland.

9. "Alias." By some eerie coincidence, the networks trotted out three new shows about terror-fighting Americans this year. The one that's most worth watching is "Alias," a wonderfully preposterous spy fantasy about a young woman who is a banker by day and a butt-kicking double-agent by night. Though it has a tendency towards the formulaic, "Alias" is almost always gripping, gorgeous and just plain fun, thanks in no small part to the remarkable Jennifer Garner. She's our nominee for the TV discovery of the year.

10. Diva meltdowns. It's always been hard to take your eyes off of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. This year, that was truer than ever. First, Mariah went on MTV's "Total Request Live," where she pushed a popsicle cart, stripped off her T-shirt and soon headed straight to the loony bin. Even scarier was Whitney's appearance on Michael Jackson's TV special. Skinnier than Karen Carpenter and sweating like a pig in heat, Whitney looked so spectral that CBS ultimately digitally doctored the footage. We still saw how shocked Michael was by Whitney's appearance. And when you scare Michael Jackson, you're in big trouble.