WB'S VIEWERS SAVE 3 SHOWS
By DON KAPLAN

ALIENS will be orbiting the WB next fall when "Roswell" comes back for its
second season - but not before at least one red-hot intergalactic visitor
shows some skin on the cover of next month's Maxim magazine.

The June issue - which hits newsstands later this week - has an 11-page
pictorial featuring a slew of women from the WB's prime-time lineup in
near-nude poses.

The network announces its new Fall lineup today.

Besides "Roswell," other notable returns are "Popular" and "Felicity." All
three shows, which were facing cancellation, are back in the wake of
aggressive viewer campaigns.

New shows include a drama called "The Gilmore Girls" on Thursday nights,
"Grosse Pointe" - a drama from "Melrose Place" and "Sex and the City"
creator Darren Star - on Fridays, a sketch comedy show called "Hype" on
Sundays and "Nikki," a comedy starring vixen Nikki Cox.

The WB's Friday-night block of black-themed comedies such as "The Jamie Foxx
Show," "Steve Harvey," and "For Your Love," move to Sundays and starts at 7
p.m. - together with "The PJs," the animated Eddie Murphy comedy that aired
on Fox last year.

Fridays will now feature "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" - formally an ABC
mainstay - "Grosse Point" and "Popular."

Not returning to the schedule: "7th Heaven Beginnings," "Zoe," "D.C." and
the failed Harry Hamlin comedy, "Movie Stars."

Meanwhile, the white-hot Maxim magazine layout features 10 of the network's
best-known actresses - from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" star Sara Michelle
Gellar to "Jamie Foxx Show" vixen Garcelle Beauvais.

The pictorial includes steamy spreads and a Q&A with 21-year-old "Roswell"
star Katherine Heigl, who thinks that there really are beings from other
worlds on Earth.