When is a “ghost car” not a ghost car? Who are you going to call to debunk a UFO sighting? Just how much of what you see on YouTube can be believed? These are the big questions submitted to the new series “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files” (9 p.m., SyFy).

A belabored hybrid of Jesse Ventura’s “Conspiracy Theory” and the nightly TMZ round up of celebrity footage, “Fact” features a former FBI agent and a relatively telegenic panel of video experts, journalists and paranormal investigators.

Every show begins in their offices where they present and evaluate odd videos, often widely available on the Internet. They dismiss many out of hand as easily detectible fakes and explain why they rejected them. Then they settle on two films that stumped them and set out to see whether they can duplicate or explain the apparently paranormal phenomenon.

Using “Mythbusters”-like skepticism and a Hollywood stuntman, they test a policeman’s surveillance video of an apparent “ghost car,” a vintage getaway vehicle that appears to drive right through a chain-link fence and then vanish into the night. The panel also examines some widely disseminated footage of reported UFOs over Arizona.

It would spoil the fun to reveal which turn out to be fact or faked. But it’s readily apparent that this is a half-hour show masquerading as an hourlong series. Every conversation, clip and conclusion seems to be repeated at least three times. And every segment is belabored painfully as if the panel had no faith in its audience’s attention span. Or if they simply assumed that nobody could watch this without zooming around the dial in search of more fascinating phenomenon.

• Andy works the beat and walks the streets on “Rookie Blue” (8 p.m., ABC). Counting last night’s “Covert Action,” this is the second time in as many nights that the attractive star of a new series has to go undercover as a prostitute.

Tonight’s other highlights

• “Reverse the Curse of the Bambino” (5:30 p.m., HBO) recalls the 2004 championship season of the Boston Red Sox.

• Sue contrives a bitter competition between singers on “Glee” (7 p.m., Fox).

• A trip to Niagara Falls on “The Office” (8 p.m., NBC).

• A contestant goes home on “So You Think You Can Dance” (8 p.m., Fox).

• A media mogul’s murder may be tied to a thrill-kill cult on “The Mentalist” (9 p.m., CBS).

• Two siblings have life-threatening congenital heart disease on “Boston Med” (9 p.m., ABC).

Cult choice

The Coen Brothers send up the film noir genre in the offbeat 1998 comedy “The Big Lebowski” (7 p.m., TV Guide), starring Jeff Bridges as “The Dude.”

Series notes

Shirley’s holiday party on “Community” (7 p.m., NBC) … Matt’s mother visits on “Vampire Diaries” (7 p.m., CW) … A winter trip to forget on “30 Rock” (7:30 p.m., NBC) … A golf pro takes his last swing on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS) … A fire engulfs a Hollywood landmark on “Moonlight” (8 p.m., CW) … A fateful hunting trip on “Parks and Recreation” (8:30 p.m., NBC) … Grim events on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).