The World Welcomes In 2002

Television welcomes the new year with a variety of programming choices that include culture, history, drama, football and celebration.

ABC News’ Peter Jennings gets the TV party started when he anchors the 31/2-hour special “ABC 2002” (6:30 p.m. KABC), from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The program, which uses an approach similar to the network’s rousing welcome of the millennium, will visit New Year’s Eve celebrations in London, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Moscow, Jerusalem and other locations around the world.

Also included are observations and essays on the coming year from correspondents and guests, plus musical performances by U2, Sting and Arlo Guthrie.

Dick Clark continues the festivities with his “Dick Clark’s Prime Time New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2002” (10 p.m. KABC), from Times Square in New York. Clark, who will be joined by Steve Doocy and Madison Michele, will report on happenings around Gotham. The show includes highlights of past performances by Aerosmith, Destiny’s Child, the Dave Matthews Band, Kool & the Gang, Barry Manilow and Elton John.

After a local news break, Clark will return for the traditional minute-by-minute countdown to 2002.

PBS presents “Crucible of the Millennium” (9 p.m. KCET), a special that examines events that occurred five centuries ago and had enduring effects on other cultures and are linked to current situations. Earlier, at 8 p.m., KCET visits Denver’s Art Museum on “Antiques Road Show,” hosted by Dan Elias.

Cable’s Lifetime channel offers a movie double feature: At 8 p.m. comes the drama “The Familiar Stranger,” starring Margaret Colin (“Now and Again,” “Independence Day”), about a woman whose husband is an embezzler, followed at 10 by “Sex, Lies and Obsession,” a drama starring Harry Hamilin (“L.A. Law”) and real-life wife Lisa Rinna (“Melrose Place”), about a woman whose husband is addicted to sex.

In college football, Washington State plays Purdue in the Sun Bowl (11 a.m. CBS), and Fresno State meets Michigan State in the Silicon Valley Classic (noon FSN).