Get me outa this room

Once upon a time there was a game show on the Science Channel, of all places, called Race to Escape. Based on the escape room amusements that have been popular here and there, the show put contestants in a locked room which they had to escape by solving puzzles.

It was an okay show, though it expired after only six eps. It's often hard to escape from the Nielsen Company's ax. NBC swiped the idea for a charity special on Thursday called, you guessed it, Celebrity Escape Room.

Four celebs - game show stalwarts Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox, Adam Scott from ABC's upcoming Don't, and showrunner Ben Stiller - had to find their way out of various rooms that were designed as '80s throwbacks, high school halls, and I can't remember what else. They got clues along the way to help them through the mildly fiendish labyrinth.

Jack Black, attired like a reincarnated and slightly slimmer Orson Welles, hosted in his usual over-the-top manner. There were frequent pitches for the audience to chip in with donations, as the celebs piled up charity money with each room they got through.

NBC might have been testing the format for a possible series. The numbers weren't disastrous, just kind of blah. 3.79M viewers and a 0.8 19-49 rating. We'll see if the show escapes from one-time status.

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