THE RED NOSE DAY SPECIAL -- "Celebrity Escape Room" -- Pictured: (l-r) Ben Stiller, Lisa Kudrow -- (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)

Best-bets for May 21: A fun night for charity

1) “Celebrity Escape Room,” 8 p.m., NBC. Do we really want to watch other people try to escape from rooms? Yes, if they’re clever people who make droll comments to each other and the camera and game-master Jack Black. Against an ’80s-teen theme (show here), we learn that Ben Stiller doesn’t know how to play “rock, paper, scissors” … Adam Scott hasn’t been to a prom … Courteney Cox frightens easily … and that Lisa Kudrow doesn’t know the song “Fight For the Right (to Party),” but “might have solved a Rubik’s cube once; let’s say I have.” Read more…

1) “Celebrity Escape Room,” 8 p.m., NBC. Do we really want to watch other people try to escape from rooms? Yes, if they’re clever people who make droll comments to each other and the camera and game-master Jack Black. Against an ’80s-teen theme (show here), we learn that Ben Stiller doesn’t know how to play “rock, paper, scissors” … Adam Scott hasn’t been to a prom … Courteney Cox frightens easily … and that Lisa Kudrow doesn’t know the song “Fight For the Right (to Party),” but “might have solved a Rubik’s cube once; let’s say I have.”

2) “Red Nose Day Special,” 9-11 p.m., NBC. The “Escape Room” is just one piece of a three-hour special to raise money for children’s charities worldwide. The rest has short bursts of humor, music and documentary films. Mandy Moore and Justin Hartley host, with guests associated with comedy (Ray Romano, Jim Gaffigan, Susan Silverman, Ricky Gervais), music (OneRepublic, 5 Seconds of Summer, Meghan Trainor, James Taylor, John Legend) and both (Steve Martin with his banjo mates).

3) “The Split” season-opener, midnight, Sundance. The polite term is “family law,” but these women are known as divorce lawyers. They handle high-profile cases … not easy when their own lives wobble. Two firms have merged, finally putting Hannah and her sister Nina in the same place. Their mother is no longer in charge … Nina is mourning a blown romance … Hannah is fuming at her husband’s high-profile affair and another big case arrives. The result is sleek, smart and quite cynical.

4) “Burden of Truth” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW. These are lawyers, too, but almost in a different universe. Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) is steady and diligent, the opposite of her late father, a big-money, small-ethics guy. She also has likability issues, something she finally acknowledges. But Billy, her boyfriend, finds her easy to like. As their big-city law firm teeters, she’s called back to their home town. The case – and the extreme official reactions – is hard to believe, but the rest works well.

5) Reality surge. Wednesday was the last official day of the TV season, so now the summer silliness begins. ABC has “Holey Moley II: The Sequel” – miniature golf with lots of twists – at 9 p.m., sandwiched by celebrity “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” at 8 (Phil McGraw of “Dr. Phil” is the contestant) and the season-opener of “To Tell the Truth,” hosted by Anthony Anderson, at 10. And at 9, Fox debuts “Labor of Love,” a dating show with Kristy Katzmann, 41, and 15 guys.

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