The new series “Time Warp” (7 p.m., Discovery) celebrates super-slow-motion photography. Under the guise of science, we’re shown lots of cool stuff, like a water balloon hitting someone’s face or a chicken exploding – all at a slow crawl. Sure to appeal to adolescents of all ages.

“Prototype This” (9 p.m., Discovery) features four experts who work out of a San Francisco warehouse. Every week, they examine a problem and try to devise new solutions, all within a period of 10 days.

“Prototype” kicks off with an examination of road rage. The pocket-protector quartet tries to devise a car that can measure a driver’s stress level and automatically put the transmission in neutral until the driver calms down. By way of experiment, they build their own demolition-derby cars and a remote-control system linked to computers programmed to read the signs of human stress.

It takes a very long hour for the guys to get their derby rigged up, but, in the end, it works. They have the ability to crash their cars into each other, but the cars tend to idle every time the driver gets too hot under the hood.

If I were tinkering with “Prototype This,” I’d either reduce the show to a half hour or include more ideas per episode. Given the short attention span of its intended audience, I found “Prototype” a little too decaffeinated.

“Time Warp” and “Prototype This” form the bread for a “Mythbusters” (8 p.m., Discovery) sandwich. On tonight’s original episode, our special-effects experts try to figure out whether it’s possible for a victim buried up to his or her neck in sand to escape.

¢ It comes down to Leanne, Korto and Kenley as “Project Runway” (8 p.m., Bravo) wraps up its fifth season with the three finalists showing their collections to a crowd of design luminaries in New York’s Bryant Park. Don’t be surprised if the deeply unpopular Kenley takes home the prize. Leanne seems too mellow to win, and Korto may be listening to her own drummer too intently to please a panel of judges. Besides, “Runway” has a history of honoring the season’s biggest brat.

The suspense over this season’s winner is probably overshadowed by worries over the fate of the series. Right now, it’s not certain where or when “Runway” will reappear.

Last April, Lifetime surprised the TV world by snatching the popular series. Bravo’s parent company, NBC Universal, sued the “Runway” producers to stop the move, and a judge recently ruled in Universal’s favor, blocking the move to Lifetime, at least for now.

Stay tuned. This could take a while to sort out. Perhaps Tim Gunn should petition the courts and admonish them to “make it work!”

¢ David Alan Grier stars on the new sketch series “Chocolate News” (9:30 p.m., Comedy Central), a sendup of a news program that allows Grier to impersonate characters. More rude than insightful.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Olive asks for help after murder invades the tranquility of the convent on “Pushing Daisies” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama meet in the third and final presidential debate (8 p.m., CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, C-Span, BBC America, Telemundo). CBS correspondent Bob Schieffer moderates the event, broadcast live from Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.