Lawrence.com

A peculiar theme emerges on two new animated holiday originals. Both feature spoiled characters who drive Santa out of the Christmas business. In "The Christmas Orange" (7:30 p.m., Family), a flippant 6-year-old, Anton Stingley, becomes enraged at Santa after the jolly fat one leaves him a single piece of fruit. Expecting a cornucopia of gifts, he takes Santa to court. The resulting "trial of the century" threatens to end Christmas as we know it. As you might expect, Anton learns the true spirit of Christmas just in the nick of time.

"Rugrats: Babies in Toyland" (7 p.m., Nickelodeon) spins a similar tale. Santa (the voice of Jim Belushi) hangs up his beard after the scheming Angelica makes too many demands. This being a cartoon, even Angelica learns a lesson or two before the arrival of the big day.

• Cedric the Entertainer is host of the 2002 Billboard Music Awards (7 p.m., Fox) honoring the best-selling artists of the past 12 months. Scheduled performers include Faith Hill, Creed, Aril Lavigne and Nelly. Cher will receive an Artist Achievement Award and Michael Jackson is supposed to mark the 20th anniversary of his "Thriller" album. Finally, it wouldn't be an awards show if Aerosmith's Steven Tyler didn't show up.
• Just who will be the featured person on the two-hour "Biography of the Year" (7 p.m., A&E)? Given this year's nominees, the answer is hardly a mystery. Tonight's profiles include: Mideast rivals Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon; actress Halle Berry; President George W. Bush; dictator Saddam Hussein; the "Beltway Sniper" suspects; reality-TV stars the Osbournes; FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley; missing teenager Elizabeth Smart; troubled taste-maker Martha Stewart; and tennis star Serena Williams. I guess there wasn't room for my favorite minor celebrity of the year, Darrell Lambert, the teenage atheist Boy Scout.
• Hot on the heels of "Junkyard Wars," the new series "Monster Garage" (7 p.m., Discovery) challenges talented, visionary gear-heads to turn ordinary vehicles into truly twisted road machines. In tonight's offering, a team of engineers and grease monkeys transforms a humble Geo Tracker into the launching pad and carriage for a hot-air balloon. While I rather like the creativity behind "Monster," the show is all but ruined by the WWE-inspired graphics, rapid-fire editing and testosterone-fueled commentary. Memo to Discovery Channel: Not all men are morons.
• Best-selling crime author Patricia Cornwell applies 21st-century forensic science methods to one of the most elusive police mysteries of all time in the documentary special "Ripper Murders: Case Closed" (9 p.m., TLC). After sifting through original archival material and working with FBI profilers, Cornwell found a trail of evidence that points to artist Walter Sickert as the man most likely to have killed more than 10 London women in 1888. "Ripper Murders" is based on Cornwell's book "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper, Case Closed" (Putnam, 2002), which has its share of critics and detractors.

Tonight's other highlights

• Murder flies coach on "Monk" (7 p.m., ABC).
• Ray puts some extra thought into his holiday gifts on "Everybody Loves Raymond" (8 p.m., CBS).
• Miami meets Chicago on "Monday Night Football" (8 p.m., ABC).
• A gunman claims a young victim on "Third Watch" (8 p.m., NBC).
• Jane Seymour stars in the 2002 drama "Heart of a Stranger" (8 p.m., Lifetime) as a heart transplant recipient who feels strangely transformed by her new ticker.
• Horatio's old friend is killed by a bomb on "CSI: Miami" (9 p.m., CBS).
• A counselor feels burdened by a grim confession on "Crossing Jordan" (9 p.m., NBC).