The desperate attempt to attract young male viewers often makes for gruesome television. “Wild World of Spike” (11 p.m., Spike) is no exception. Hosted by martial-arts fighter Kit Cope, skateboarding professional Jason Ellis and comedian Sam Tripoli, “Wild” presents amateur-sports footage from around the world, accompanied by chatter and “jokes” from the three aforementioned dudes.

The footage offers a peak at bored male behavior at its most inspired. Teens channel their inner Fonzie to ride their bikes up a ramp and into a towering pine tree. We also see odd exhibitionist forms of wrestling at a biker convention, something called competitive “wife carrying” and fire-hose football.

The stunts do a good job of proving that bored guys can make a sport of practically anything, and most of these contests end up with somebody on the ground writhing in pain. Occasionally, the hosts try out the stunts themselves, but these are never as good as the original footage.

The worst aspects of “Wild” consist of the three hosts and their attempts to provide witty commentary. Their patter consists of random whoops and lines that translate roughly as “Let’s get drunk” and “I love bosoms.” Compared to “Wild World of Spike,” the lowliest beer commercial has the inspired genius of a Mozart symphony.

¢ What happens when best-selling dog-book authors join forces? Cesar Millan of “The Dog Whisperer” (7 p.m., National Geographic) visits the family of John Grogan, author of the book “Marley and Me” (William Morrow, 2005). Grogan and his wife have some real problems with their new Labrador, Gracie, whose hunting instincts cause trouble on the Grogans’ chicken farm.

¢ Animated versions of celebrities do contrived things only marginally dumber than the “real” thing on the new series “Starveillance” (9:30 p.m. E!).

¢ In other cartoon news, IFC launches a Friday-night block of two dubbed anime features from Japan. Set in Italy, the 13-part series “Gunslinger Girl” (10 p.m.) follows a group of orphaned children trained by a government agency to become gun-wielding assassins. If you don’t find this sick, I don’t want to know you.

¢ How’s this for science fiction? A superhero show canceled quickly by a network that no longer exits finds new life on a thriving cable niche, bringing joy to the folks who nurtured the memory of the series on Internet chat rooms and other places where lonely fans gather.

Fantasy becomes reality with the return of “Jake 2.0” (7 p.m., Sci Fi), a series that first aired on UPN in 2003. Christopher Gorham stars in the title role as a lowly assistant who becomes a cyber superhero after a lab accident. It’s “The Nutty Professor” meets “The Six Million Dollar Man.” I liked this comic-book fantasy series back in the day, but it didn’t last very long into 2004.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ A ghost feels penned-in on “Ghost Whisperer” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ Death walks the high school corridors on “Degrassi” (7 p.m., The N).

¢ A meek professor stands accused of road rage on “Close to Home” (8 p.m., CBS).

¢ Scheduled on “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC): children obsessed with fame; the proliferation of surveillance cameras.