Tube Notes

By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service

Tonight's must-sees

"Essence Awards," 7 p.m., FOX. Each year this show offers stirring music and emotional tributes. This time, the awardees include Oscar-winner Halle Berry, plus three singers, Janet Jackson and fresh new forces Alicia Keys and India.arie. Honorees also include Kenny Gamble and the duo of James "Jimmy Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis, plus author Terry McMillan. Steve Harvey is the host.

"MTV Movie Awards," 6 and 8:30 p.m., MTV. The awards themselves don't mean much. The real fun comes in the humor and star power. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jack Black host. Because MTV reaches the people who buy movie tickets, this show gets all the top presenters. Tonight, they include Will Smith, Chris Rock, Nicolas Cage and Jennifer Connelly. The best-movie nominees include three that we heard of at Oscar time ("Fellowship of the Ring," "Shrek," "Black Hawk Down") and two that we didn't ("Legally Blonde" and "The Fast and the Furious").

Of note

"Friends," 7 p.m., NBC. It's time to jump back to the beginning of what became an excellent "Friends" season. Tonight, that starts at the wedding reception for Monica and Chandler..

"Frasier," 7:30 p.m., NBC. In a transplanted rerun, Frasier's son competes in the National Spelling Bee. That brings strong humor from Niles, who once flubbed the same contest.

"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," 8 p.m., CBS. The bodies of two girls are found stuffed inside a culvert.

"Frontline: Assault on Gay America," 9 p.m., PBS. In 1999, a 39-year-old computer programmer was killed in small-town Alabama. One of the convicted killers said he did it because the man was gay. This reruns the hour in which Forrest Sawyer used that case as a starting point to study gay-bashing.