LOS ANGELES - On Sunday, Oct. 26, at 10 p.m. ET, MTV premiered the second season of "Punk'd," the hidden-camera show in which "That '70s Show" star and Demi Moore toyboy Ashton Kutcher plays hard-hitting pranks on unwitting fellow celebrities.

On Friday, Oct. 31, at 10 p.m. ET, on Sci Fi Channel, Shannen Doherty returns as host of the second season of "Scare Tactics," a hidden-camera show that puts unsuspecting participants -- who have been nominated by friends and/or family -- in the middle of elaborate recreations of scenes from horror and science-fiction films.

Since her show's premiere early this year, Doherty has heard criticisms that it's cruel and unusual punishment to subject ordinary folk to fake aliens, monsters and rampaging killers.

"Despite what some people may think about it being mean," Doherty says, "we, in editing, make it look much worse than it actually is. It's the power of TV.

"And we're not picking random people. It started as friends of the producers, friends of mine, now it's grown. Those people we pull pranks on, they're like, 'We had such a good time. We want to set up our friends.'"

Beside, she wonders, why hasn't the hammer also fallen on Kutcher?

"I keep getting asked about Ashton Kutcher," Doherty says. "How come his show's not getting as much controversy as mine? Those skits are gnarly. Justin Timberlake looked like he was about to die."

Doherty's referring to an early "Punk'd" episode in which the singer thought the IRS was descending on him and taking away everything he owned -- including his dog -- because of tax-fraud allegations.

"I was disgusted," says Alyssa Milano, Doherty's former "Charmed" co-star, who has been romantically linked to Timberlake. "I knew that they were going to do that to him, and I wanted to call him and ruin it so bad. My brother and I were saying, 'We should call him and tell him.' It's horrible.

"He was crying. He was like, 'You're taking my dog?' You can totally see his face -- horrible. They wanted to get me, and someone told me, thank the Lord. They wanted to set up some sort of satellite in my backyard and say they got alien signals."

Doherty has a theory about why "Punk'd" doesn't get the same criticism as "Scare Tactics" -- one picks on celebs, and the other doesn't.

"Does that make it OK, if it's celebrities?" she says. "Does the general public go, 'Oh, it's a celebrity, so it's no big deal.' It's really strange to me.

"You think because somebody's on TV, that they're fair game, and it's OK, that they don't have feelings, they don't have fears?"

"I don't know what to think about it," Milano says about the same question. "I guess we're blatant targets, and that's just acceptable.