What do men want? That’s the billion-dollar question for TV programmers and advertisers. Some cable networks have found success by creating “reality” programming around hyper-masculine figures like Discovery’s “American Chopper,” about a family of motorcycle craftsmen. A&E, a network once considered the “Arts & Entertainment” home of ballet, jazz and deep thinkers, now brags that one of it’s most popular shows is “Dog the Bounty Hunter” (8 p.m., A&E).

Now entering its second season, “Dog” follows a bounty hunter as he tracks down desperate characters while trying to keep his extended and at times dysfunctional family together.

Hot on the heels of “Dog,” A&E introduces “Knievel’s Wild Ride” (9 p.m.), which follows the son of the famous motorcycle stunt-jumper as he replicates his father’s daredevil ways.

“The Adventures of Errol Flynn” (7 p.m., Turner Classic Movies) examines an earlier generation’s notions of masculinity. Narrated by Ian Holm, “Adventures” looks at the many films and headline-grabbing personal life of Flynn, the greatest swashbuckling star of Hollywood’s golden age.

Born in Tasmania and raised in Australia, Flynn’s early days included many South Pacific sailing adventures and a two-year stint as a gold prospector in New Guinea. Unlike most stars, Flynn embarked on an acting career as a way of settling down.

Flynn’s fans and colleagues from several eras, including Olivia De Havilland, Burt Reynolds, Joanne Woodward and Richard Dreyfuss, offer insightful commentary about Flynn’s athleticism and grace. Sword-brandishing Flynn would be typecast in “The Sea Hawk,” “Captain Blood,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood” (8:30 p.m., TCM) and other adventures.

Flynn also excelled in Westerns, including “They Died with Their Boots On” (2:30 a.m., TCM), and starred in many combat pictures during World War II, when the lingering effects of malaria and tuberculosis, which he contracted during his early days in New Guinea, kept him out of combat.

“Adventures” recalls the controversial charges of statutory rape that sullied his reputation in 1942. As his daughter recalls, Flynn was besieged by women and “didn’t need to rape anybody.” The film avers that corrupt elements of the Los Angeles police department went after Flynn because his studio, Warner Bros., failed to pay them off.

The film also disputes as groundless the posthumous charges that Flynn was a Nazi agent. Flynn would live his final decades in physical and financial decline, dying at age 50 after making the odd pro-Castro film “Cuban Rebel Girls,” co-staring his teenage lover Beverly Aadland. While TCM won’t show “Cuban Rebel Girls,” Flynn’s other films will air every Tuesday in April.

Tonight’s other highlights

• The final nine compete on “American Idol” (7 p.m., Fox).
• Richard uses vehicular mayhem to make his point on “Gilmore Girls” (7 p.m., WB).
• Longitudes and attitudes on “The Amazing Race” (8 p.m., CBS).
• A woman’s rare disease puts her marriage in jeopardy on “House” (8 p.m., Fox).
• Gene Hackman narrates “Imaginary Witness” (8 p.m., AMC), a look at how Hollywood and television have depicted the Holocaust.
• A woman seeks custody of her half-sister on “Judging Amy” (9 p.m., CBS).
• Billy Campbell guest stars as a professor accused of rape on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).