It's about slime!

The whole idea of conducting the "Kids' Choice Awards" might seem a bit absurd.

Being so young, kids know less than everybody else on the planet, so many adult award-watchers must wonder: Who cares what they think about the best of anything?

Answer: You should, because kids' views are always fun to hear and -- here's the punch line -- their awards show, now 20 years old, has grown up to be a big deal.

Last year the telecast attracted nearly 6 million viewers on Nickelodeon, which is roughly the same audience size as the "Tony Awards" on CBS and "Daytime Emmys" on ABC.

It also shines with a galaxy of superstars. Celebs attending this Saturday night will include Will Smith, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts and Queen Latifah.

Despite being nominated, Johnny Depp skipped the recent Golden Globes, but he'll be showing up for the kiddies even though they ambushed him with green slime the last time he joined them.

Justin Timberlake has taken a green shower on stage, too, but the two-time winner of the best burp award (he beat Hugh Jackman last year) not only returns victorious, but presides as host.

Slime baths and burping showdowns make the "Kids' Choice Awards" even crazier -- and often grosser -- than those wacky kudos celebrating the big kid in every deranged adult: "The MTV Movie Awards."

The kids' categories aren't as zany.

There's no fight over best villain or, well, best fight, but the results can be surprising. It didn't matter what huge stars Ashton Kutcher and Frankie Muniz became on TV in recent years; They both lost the award for favorite TV actor two years ago to Lil' Romeo.

Maybe, in retrospect, that outcome was easily predictable, considering the Lil' Voters. They cast 27 million hefty votes last year -- all on the Internet at Nickelodeon.com.

One category is usually a snap to predict: favorite cartoon. It doesn't matter what's nominated -- not even the classic "The Simpsons," which stars several kid characters, even a precious brat named Bart -- everything loses to "SpongeBob SquarePants" year after year.

But there are other curious surprises, too. Winner of the award for favorite actor of 2005, for example, was Adam Sandler ("50 First Dates"), who beat Jim Carrey ("Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"), Tobey Maguire ("Spider-Man 2") and Tim Allen ("Christmas with the Kranks"). How many kids actually saw "50 First Dates"?

It's unlikely, given how snooty the academy can be, that the same contenders would comprise the best actor lineup at the Oscars, but there's a curious parallel, proving that little people sometimes think much like big people.

Last year's Kids' Choice favorite actor, Will Smith, was nominated by the academy this year. But it happened to be for a different flick. Oscar voters weighed "The Pursuit of Happyness." The kids chose "Hitch."

This year actors are nominated without film affiliations, just like the "People's Choice Awards."

Two years ago, the Oscar for best animated filme went to "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." The kids nominated it, too, but they preferred "Madagascar," which the academy snubbed.

The "Kids' Choice Awards" had modest origins. In 1987, Nickelodeon launched the Big Ballot, which polled kids' preferences and soon evolved into a full-fledged awards show.

It became a high-profile event only when a big star took center stage as the host of the wee ones' gig. That was Rosie O'Donnell in 1996. She continued in the job for seven years.

To celebrate the awards' 20th anniversary, producer Bob Bain promises a fun time, but is evasive about details.

"We have a lot of special stuff planned," Bain told TV Week. "I can't address any specifically right now because we don't want to give away the weapons. Suffice to say that we want this thing to be something memorable relative to the other 19 years.

"We are going 20 minutes longer," he added. "What we have found is that 90 minutes, compared to the other award shows I've done, is very short. We're racing through things to get everything in."