SUNDAY'S MUST-SEE

"Nature: The Beauty of Ugly," 7 p.m., PBS. It's not easy to hold an ugly-animal contest. The candidates are plentiful. There's the ghost-face bat, the needle-toothed viperfish, the Indian stork, the naked mole rat. There are tapeworms that grow to 35 or 40 feet. All are shown here, in full glory. Many ugly features are useful. The warthog uses its "warts" (cartilage, actually) to deflect tusks; the mole rat uses its nakedness to exchange heat quickly during group hugs. These stories are told with an appealing mix of science, humor and truly ugly pictures.

American Music Awards, 7 p.m., ABC. The awards are meaningless, but the lineup is impressive. Performers include Daughtry, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, Lenny Kravitz, Chris Brown and Rascal Flatts.

OF NOTE

"Andrew Jackson," 6 p.m., History Channel. Historians have found much to love or hate in Andrew Jackson. To some, he was a people's president, a frontier spirit who disrupted the rule of rich men; to others, he was crude and contentious, rewarding political favorites and creating economic crises. Here's a profile.

"E.T." (1982), 7 and 9:30 p.m., ABC Family. Steven Spielberg began this as a personal project — a modest-budget, no-star tale of a boy and his alien. He made it stunningly well, however, filling it with humanity, visual splendor and visceral excitement. The result is a family classic, one of the best films in movie history.

"The Simpsons," 8 p.m., Fox. Ever notice that fitness gyms mostly draw people who don't need fitness gyms? Now Marge starts one for regular women; worried about the comparison, Homer decides to get in shape, too. Meanwhile, a new comic-book store creates troubles for the Comic Book Guy.

"Cold Case," 8 p.m., CBS. Here's a variation on the real situation that inspired the movie "Boys Don't Cry": Back in 1963, this story says, a girl dressed and acted like a boy. Investigators re-open the case, to see whether it was murder or suicide.

"Masterpiece Theatre: The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard" finale, 8 p.m., PBS. After fascinating us for four weeks, this miniseries disappoints with a nonending. It's sort of like having someone clip the last chapter from a terrific novel. Worse, the show has its lead character do a complete character reversal in the final minutes. A dandy story — about a supermarket manager who suddenly becomes prime minister — ends with a shrug.

"Shark," 9 p.m., CBS. Stark is busy trying to pin a murder rap on an arsonist, after a firefighter dies during a rescue attempt. Then he learned an added twist: The rescue never had a chance; the victim was killed before the blaze.