The TV year has ebbs and flows, and we’re in a big ebb right now. The week before Labor Day marks a time when viewers choose to be otherwise engaged. People would clearly rather build their last beach bonfire than tune in to “Wanna Bet” (8 p.m., ABC).

One surefire way of knowing you’re smack-dab in the middle of TV’s dead zone is the arrival of “World’s Funniest Commercials 2008” (8 p.m., TBS), a biannual advertising salute that airs the week before New Year’s and just before Labor Day. Longtime host Kevin Nealon deserves some kind of award for working the graveyard shift. He is joined by fellow comic Susan Yeagley, who just happens to be his wife.

While the commercials come from all over the world, Australia, Japan and the Scandinavian countries dominate the competition. The entries are treated like Olympic events, and the Nealons even get gold medalist Scott Hamilton to announce the winner.

Computer-generated special effects have allowed many commercials to look like blockbuster movies. A beer commercial from Australia takes on epic proportions, as does an Italian spot for a deodorant (I think) that culminates with a scene of destruction right out of Pompeii. Most ads explore the differences between men and women. One demonstrates the dangerous lengths a regular guy will go to to avoid attending the opera.

Not all feature computer effects. Proof that words and wit still matter arrive in a spot for a film festival, featuring a dour feminist movie critic spinning a rather radical theory that will make you think twice about the “real” meaning of “Toy Story.”

¢ The British sitcom “Gavin and Stacey” (7:40 p.m., BBC America) offers a winning combination of wide-eyed romance and raunchy characters and situations. The title characters (Mathew Horne and Joanna Page) are smitten with each other but have only talked on the phone. She’s from Wales, and he’s from England, but they both have very odd friends and families.

Gavin’s doting mother offers a rather amusing tirade about the Atkins diet, and Stacey’s overprotective uncle won’t let her leave Wales without a high-tech anti-rape alarm. When they decide to finally meet, the young lovers are each accompanied by their best friends, Nessa (Ruth Jones) and Smithy (James Corden), both oversized eccentrics who bristle at the sight of each other but soon discover that massive amounts of alcohol can lubricate even the most twisted path to passion.

For all of its bracing observations about modern life, the show never forgets that its main characters are crazy about each other. And that young love comes across so uncynically that “Gavin & Stacey” seems almost old-fashioned.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Democratic National Convention coverage (5 p.m., CNN; 6 p.m., MSNBC; 7 p.m., PBS; 8:45 p.m., Fox News; 9 p.m., ABC, CBS, NBC).

¢ The competition resumes on “America’s Got Talent” (7 p.m., NBC).

¢ On two episodes of “House” (Fox), no more Mr. Nice Guy (7 p.m.), a soap-star obsession (8 p.m.).

¢ “Greek” (8 p.m., Family) enters its second season.

¢ “REAL Sports with Bryant Gumbel” (9 p.m., HBO) looks at soaring ticket prices.

¢ After a fire, the guys enjoy a well-deserved treat on a five-minute episode of “Rescue Me” (9 p.m., FX).