WEEKEND TV : Pauley and Brokaw Shows to Debut

With the new Congress in session and the countdown to a possible war with Iraq moving forward, the weekend talk shows will be heavy with more-pressing-than-usual news and opinions. Meanwhile, NBC will try to buck its trend of ratings flops on Sunday nights with two new shows from its news department.

“Real Life With Jane Pauley,” 8 p.m. (4)(36)(39), gives the former and much beloved host of “Today” a new job and a chance to chronicle the quirks and realities of contemporary life. “Expose,” anchored by Tom Brokaw, debuts at 8:30 p.m. with an investigative report on Americans who have been tortured in foreign jails. (See story, F8.)

Elsewhere Sunday, PBS stirs a bit of vintage entertainment into the weekend mix at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 28 and 10 p.m. on Channel 58 with “Carnegie Hall at 100: A Place of Dreams.” Ray Charles, Vladimir Horowitz, Artur Rubinstein and Liza Minnelli are among those who can be seen performing in the famed New York concert hall.

At 9 p.m. Sunday, the Disney Channel explores “Antarctica: the Last Frontier” in a two-hour documentary about the frozen continent’s fragile ecosystem.