As network television continues to lose audience share to cable, the Internet, video games and reading (OK, I made that last one up), TV honchos have become increasingly timid and their scheduling choices ever more curious. In a programming walk through the looking glass, they now wait until the end of sweeps to show the kind of spectacles that used to dominate the ratings-sensitive month. Stephen King’s “Kingdom Hospital” on ABC is a perfect example, and so is the biblical epic “Judas” (8 p.m., ABC). And let’s not forget the campy, now-it-can-be-told (because it’s all been told a thousand times) expose “Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Charlie’s Angels”‘ (8 p.m., NBC).

While comparisons to “The Passion” are inevitable and unfair, tonight’s “Judas” is really a throwback to the “hippie Jesus” of the late ’60s and early ’70s. You know, the time of “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Jesus (Jonathan Scarfe) is not so much a mystic enigma as a longhaired pretty boy, a righteous dude with a knack for miracles. But despite much cringe-inducing dialogue, fans of Bible movies should find “Judas” compelling from start to finish. It pays to base your film on the greatest story ever told.

• I always feel vaguely guilty about subjecting my wife to all of the stuff I have to review, but when I reached for the remote to turn off “The Unauthorized Story of ‘Charlie’s Angels,'” she shouted, “Keep that on! It’s fabulously hideous.” Or was it “hideously fabulous”? Either way, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
• The one-hour documentary “Jane Goodall’s Return to Gombe” (7 p.m., Animal Planet) follows the acclaimed scientist’s return to Gombe National Park in Tanzania, where she began her pioneering study of chimpanzees more than 40 years ago.

Tonight’s other highlights

• “20/20” (7 p.m., ABC) looks at celebrity comebacks.
• Ray’s gift fails to mollify Frank on “Everybody Loves Raymond” (8 p.m., CBS).
• Falling to earth on “CSI: Miami” (9 p.m., CBS).
• CEOs and other hotshots are forced to start all over on the six-part series “Now Who’s Boss?” (9 p.m., TLC).

Late night

Drew Barrymore and Jack Hanna are on “Late Show with David Letterman” (10:35 p.m., CBS) … Jay Leno welcomes Vince Vaughn, Molly Shannon and Brides of Destruction on “The Tonight Show” (10:35 p.m., NBC).