Word warriors and trailer trash liven up cable

Viewers in search of Olympics alternatives can find two oddball offerings on cable.

  • “Word Wars” (7 p.m., Discovery Times) documents the fiercely competitive and decidedly eccentric world of professional Scrabble. While most of us think of Scrabble as a casual board game, professional Scrabblers play with a ruthless determination, backed by an obsession bordering on mania. Player intimidation got so fierce that the National Scrabble Assn. had to introduce rules outlawing bad manners and foul language during bouts.

The players here are a filmmaker’s dream. At times it’s hard to believe that “Word Wars” isn’t some spoof cooked up by Christopher Guest and the gang behind “Spinal Tap” and “Best in Show.”

Joel Sherman calls himself “GI,” not because he’s seen combat, but because his gastrointestinal tract gives him a steady case of acid reflux on and off the game circuit. Without Maalox and Scrabble, he’d be lost. His fixation on the game is all-consuming. “I have done very little to contribute to this society,” says GI Joel.

Marlon Hill comes from a tough neighborhood in Baltimore, where his Scrabble fame earns him no respect from the local rap-spieling street urchins. Marlon has his own peculiar take on the English language, the German language and other more arcane subjects, and isn’t afraid to share an opinion. He likens himself to a Scrabble-obsessed version of Malcolm X.

Both Marlon and Joel are out to dethrone Joe Edley, the reigning Scrabble champ who practices tai chi before each bout and who spouts Zen-like phrases to project an aura of calm and to frazzle the nerves of his dyspeptic challengers. As “Wars” makes clear, this is not your grandmother’s game of Scrabble.

  • Now in its second season, “Trailer Park Boys” (8 p.m., BBC America) presents a deliriously over-the-top look at life in a Canadian trailer-park community from the point of view of the bumbling petty thieves and pot dealers who live there, and the drunken adulterers who run the place.

Anyone easily offended by uncharitable depictions of the underclass should definitely skip this. In the Sunnyvale Trailer Park cars are always overturned and smoldering, kids are always throwing bottles and bags of garbage seem to be flying all directions. As one character puts it, “this is the trailer park of the apocalypse.” But if you enjoy the mockumentary antics of “Reno 911,” you will love the “Boys.”

Tonight’s other highlights

  • A guest says goodbye before a new Head of Household is chosen on “Big Brother 5” (7 p.m., CBS).
  • Scheduled primetime Olympics coverage includes women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming and women’s volleyball.
  • The New York Giants and Carolina Panthers clash in preseason NFL action (7 p.m., Fox).

Late night

Jon Stewart welcomes Seth Green on “The Daily Show” (10 p.m., Comedy Central) … David Spade and musical guests Loretta Lynn and Jack White on “Late Show with David Letterman” (10:35 p.m., CBS) … Jay Leno hosts on “The Tonight Show” (10:35 p.m., NBC) … Mathew Lillard and The Dresden Dolls appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (11:05 p.m., ABC).