WEEK IN PREVIEW: KING OF POP GOES BANG!

Following an exciting day of flipping channels between the World Series and the Emmys, coming back to the office and hearing people talk about their weekend of flipping channels between the World Series and the Emmys sure is a letdown.

That is, until you realize it's a huge week for debuts and realize that there's a lot of action at radio. You might even think that it's the fourth quarter—time for big albums and big records. Oh, wait it is the fourth quarter.

On the charts, look for Invincible (Epic), Michael Jackson's first album of new material in a decade to debut at the top, with sales of 350k-plus. In other MJ news, "Butterflies" is happening at Urban. Enrique—he's dropped the Iglesias—should see sales in the mid-200k range for his Interscope set, and Jive's Backstreet Boys will have a solid Top Five debut for their greatest hits. Just penetrating the Top 10, Lenny Kravitz's Lenny (Virgin) is selling, though the lack of a video for "Dig In" has held the project back. The video shoot was scheduled for NYC right around the time of the World Trade Center attack, but was obviously postponed.

Our Top 40 radio geniuses note that it's a big week, with Wind-up's Creed, Capitol's Paul McCartney, Atlantic's Craig David and Interscope's No Doubt all huge. Creed will close this week, though it may not be Most Added, simply because it was giant before its impact date.

In Post Modern, they expect big things this week for DreamWorks' Alien Ant Farm, Columbia's Cake and Maverick's Tantric, while next door in Crossover, it's all about Jive's Joe, Virgin's Janet Jackson and MCA's Mary J. Blige.

Hey, looks like the fourth quarter is starting to happen. But what the hell are we supposed to watch on TV now?