'America' the Beautiful

TUBE TALK Even as the African season of ''Survivor'' gets under way, producers have already confirmed that the next season of the show will return to the South Pacific. Perhaps hoping to remind viewers of the highly rated first season in Pulau Tiga, Mark Burnett will shoot the fourth season in Nuku Hiva, an island in French Polynesia. Burnett had originally considered shooting in Jordan's Crescent Valley, but post-Sept. 11 security concerns nixed the idea of shooting in the Middle East. The only dangers on Nuku Hiva (besides backstabbing fellow contestants) will be wild boars and cattle, which contestants will be allowed to hunt, Michael Skupin-style. (Start writing those letters, PETA.) CBS should air the island edition in early 2002....

Producers of the Emmys have bent over backward to make sure the show, postponed twice since Sept. 11 and moved to a new auditorium, eventually hands out its awards live on CBS. Winners of the Latin Grammys, however, which were to be handed out live on CBS on Sept. 11, will simply be announced in a press conference in Los Angeles' Conga Room nightclub on Tuesday morning, Oct. 30. There won't be any performances, and it's still not clear which stars might attend, since the winners haven't yet been notified. But there will probably be chips and salsa and bottled water, so it's still a fiesta.

SOUND BITES British health officials apologized Tuesday to George Harrison and to the schizophrenic man who nearly killed him two years ago for failing to anticipate and prevent the man's violent behavior. ''We wish to make a full and formal apology to George Harrison and his family and to Michael Abram and his family for the failures in Mr. Abram's care and treatment prior to the appalling events of December 1999,'' the statement read. Abram, who had been in and out of hospitals for years, had been home for a month when he broke into Harrison's home, stabbed him repeatedly, and attacked Harrison's wife Olivia, when she came to her husband's defense. The 35-year-old Abram, now under guard in a psychiatric hospital, has himself apologized for the attack, claiming he heard voices and believed himself possessed at the time, but he also faulted officials for not punishing specific mental health professionals who failed to treat him adequately. ''Unless they're put on the spot, how can we be sure they won't make the same mistakes again?'' he said in a statement. ''I hope people may understand what happened to me and appreciate that it was not my fault. Physically I did it, but I was not in control of my own mind at the time.''