“The Ghost Whisperer” (7 p.m., CBS) offers more questions than answers.

Where does romance end and morbidity begin? What is that fine line between spiritual sensitivity and madness? And if a show about ghosts jumps the shark, isn’t it really jumping a dead shark?

In tonight’s “Whisperer,” Melinda finds herself drawn to Sam (Kenneth Mitchell), an accident victim who should be dead but remains alive, she thinks, owing to the fact that the spirit of her just deceased husband, Jim (David Conrad), has entered his body and reanimated him. Got that so far?

But Sam, who might actually be Jim, has no memory of his pre-accident life, or, perhaps, his past life, which is not technically over. In TV-doctor terminology, Sam is suffering from amnesia, a common condition that afflicts melodramas and soap operas that have run out of story ideas.

Melinda’s friend Delia (Camryn Manheim) provides the voice of skepticism. She tries to talk our heroine off the window ledge of grief-induced delusion and suggests, ever so gently, that she is doing Sam no favors by keeping him around in the hopes that he’s got Jim rattling around in his empty belfry.

The world, I suppose, is divided into people who find Melinda’s story deeply, truly romantic and those who fear that it is Melinda and not Sam who has the problem with multiple voices in her head.

On the other hand, if you choose to watch a show with a title as silly as “The Ghost Whisperer,” you’re clearly eager to walk into the light. But even for true believers, it requires a major leap of faith to take Jennifer Love Hewitt’s performance seriously.

l And if “The Ghost Whisperer” doesn’t offer enough maudlin spiritual porridge, there’s always Christmas. Kristin Davis stars in the 2001 holiday movie “Three Days” (8 p.m., Family) as an unappreciated wife killed on Christmas Eve. An angel (Tim Meadows) gives her grief-stricken husband (Reed Diamond) a second chance to realize what he’s lost.

l In other way-too-early holiday programming, the “Larry the Cable Guy’s Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza” (8 p.m., CMT) offers an “old school” special featuring performances by Montgomery Gentry, Rodney Atkins and Emily West. It also features Tony Orlando, who appeared on some of those “old school” specials.

Tonight’s other highlights

• “Toughest Race on Earth: Iditarod” (7 p.m., Discovery) slides to its conclusion.

• Friday’s nights are all right for fighting on “Crusoe” (8 p.m., NBC).

• Blood is on the tracks on “Numb3rs” (9 p.m., CBS).

• Mary Tyler Moore guest stars as Wendy’s mother on “Lipstick Jungle” (9 p.m., NBC).

• Scheduled on “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC): an interview with Ashley Dupre, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s fateful distraction.

• A gifted young artist offers needed vision on “Sanctuary” (9 p.m., Sci Fi).

• A stalker brings a rift between Molly and Zach on “The Starter Wife” (9 p.m., USA).

• “Hollywood’s Nastiest Jobs” (9:30 p.m., E!) examines less-than-glamorous tasks.

Cult choice

An alien creature on a killing spree may be a missing astronaut mutated by radioactivity in the grade-Z 1965 shocker “Monster A-Go-Go” (1 a.m. Saturday, TCM).