Just a spoonful of ultraviolence makes the paleontology go down.

Over the past few years, I have chastised History, once one of my favorite channels, for confusing history with the search for UFOs, the scribbling of Nostradamus and a show about guys driving over frozen lakes and rivers.

So I was hardly shocked when they began to promote something called “Jurassic Fight Club” (8 p.m., History). In the logic of Hollywood, its title seems to combine elements of Steven Spielberg and Brad Pitt movies, mashing up extreme fighting and prehistoric monsters. Are we looking for a male audience here?

To my surprise and some delight, the title is a bit of a tease. Sure, it promises plenty of CGI scenes of gruesome scrapes between dinosaurs, but to get there, viewers have to slow down and take in quite a lot of geology and paleontology. In short, they’ve packed a lot of history (or at least prehistory) into an exciting package.

Rest assured, there are plenty of neat scenes of lumpy and angry-looking creatures called Majungatholus fighting to the death. So it’s a win-win.

¢ Speaking of mixing up science and entertainment, “Eureka” (8 p.m., Sci Fi) enters its third season. The whimsical comedy set in a super-secret town where the government has hidden generations of brainy scientists stars Colin Ferguson as a hapless outsider and sheriff trying to make sense of it all.

¢ Science collides with the culinary on “Food Detectives” (8 p.m., Food), hosted by Ted Allen. Allen and wizards from Popular Science magazine put food myths to the test in the laboratory and in the refrigerator.

¢ Richard Roeper, who last week ended his relationship with “At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper,” hosts “In the Gutter” (9 p.m., Starz), a documentary look at the history of the gross-out comedy.

Interviews include director John Waters, whose 1972 comedy “Pink Flamingos” turned shock value into underground movie gold.

We also hear from stars, writers and directors of films from “Animal House” to “American Pie,” “There’s Something About Mary” to “Detroit Rock City.”

¢ An intrepid British family recycles just about everything on Season 2 of “It’s Not Easy Being Green” (8 p.m., Sundance).

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Online auditions yield offbeat acts on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC).

¢ “Lord’s Children” on “Wide Angle” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) looks at young victims of Uganda’s civil wars.

¢ A diagnosis from the ends of the earth on “House” (8 p.m., Fox).

¢ An ex-con vanishes on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).

¢ A grim murder appears to be the work of a killer already behind bars on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).

¢ Scheduled on “Primetime” (9 p.m., ABC): family secrets.

¢ Lou likes a sandwich on a five-minute episode of “Rescue Me” (9 p.m.).

Cult choice

Back in 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in “Timecop” (7 p.m., AMC) as the hero in a comic-book fantasy set in the far-off year 2004.