Tuesday’s Best Bets on TV

“Nature: The Cheetah Orphans” (3 a.m., PBS): The latest installment of “Nature” is a real heart-wrencher. In “The Cheetah Orphans,” wildlife filmmaker Simon King chronicles his emotional four-year struggle to raise a pair of orphaned cubs and prepare them to return to the wild.

“Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” (8 p.m., PBS): Science or religion? The debate (or would it be more apt to say battle?) goes on surrounding the theory of intelligent design. PBS’ “Nova” explores the question in “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial.” This two-hour program revisits the federal case of Kitzmiller vs. Dover School District, which became the first legal test of intelligent design (the idea that life is too complex to have evolved naturally) as a scientific theory opposing evolution. The 2005 trial arose from a lawsuit filed by parents in Dover, Pa., after the school board a year earlier ordered science teachers to read a statement to their biology students suggesting intelligent design as an alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution. The parents accused the school board of violating the constitutional separation of church and state. (The landmark case was decided in favor of the plaintiffs.) Featuring trial re-enactments, “Judgment Day” presents the arguments of lawyers and expert witnesses, as well as addressing issues such as “What is evolution?” and “Is intelligent design a scientifically valid alternative?”

“John and Jane Toll Free” (7 p.m., Cinemax): Those help lines — in some cases, more aptly called no-help lines — for computer meltdowns or credit card complaints frequently leave customers screaming in frustration at the sometimes clueless, sometimes patient, voices at the other end of the line. This program does not feature cursing consumers, but instead profiles the realities of six workers in Bombay who take toll-free phone calls routed from the United States. Working odd shifts, they polish their English, think about the United States and like their paychecks more than their jobs.

“Bones” (8 p.m., Fox): “Bones” takes a trip back to 1987 when a group of former high school pals reunite to dig up a time capsule they buried 20 years earlier. What they find horrifies them — the body of a schoolmate. The case has Booth and Brennan reliving their own teen years.

“The Unit” (9 p.m., CBS): It’s been a rough couple of weeks on “The Unit.” A mission in Beirut went tragically awry, and now Jonas and company are now struggling to cope with the death of one of their own. Naturally, Jonas wants revenge, and he goes on a dangerous mission to get it.

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (10 p.m., NBC): On “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” Benson and Stabler discover a kidnapped girl in the trunk of a stolen rental car. The abductor turns out to be a violent schizophrenic who seriously injures Stabler when the detectives try to take him into custody.