NBC holds its annual Red Nose Day fundraiser event Thursday, May 26. The network airs a rebroadcast of reality game show Celebrity Escape Room 8 p.m. ET/PT that night. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and Adam Scott star.
NBC has had Red Nose Day for eight years. That Celebrity Escape Room special first aired in 2020.
Red Nose Day took up all of NBC’s prime for one night in previous years. This year, it’s just the Celebrity Escape Room rerun. Episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime follow.
Focused on child poverty, Red Nose Day has raised $275 million since launching in the U.S. in 2015, impacting 30 million children.
In past years, Red Nose Day on NBC featured comedy, celebrities and musical guests, and episodes of NBC unscripted shows with a Red Nose Day theme. Last year’s event saw that theme applied to The Wall, hosted by Chris Hardwick.
In 2020, Mandy Moore and Justin Hartley, stars of This Is Us, hosted, and the stars included Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Blake Shelton, Gwen Stefani, Julia Roberts and Steve Martin, in addition to the Celebrity Escape Room special.
In 2019, Lily James and Alicia Vikander starred in the short film One Red Nose Day and a Wedding. A themed Hollywood Game Night episode aired too.
Hardwick hosted Red Nose Day on NBC in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, the celebs included Ben Stiller, Lauren Graham, Anne Hathaway, Connie Britton, Minnie Driver, Kelly Clarkson, Julia Roberts and Ed Sheeran, and a themed episode of Celebrity Ninja Warrior.
Stiller and Black are executive producers for Celebrity Escape Room, which “combines the drama and tension of a real-life video game with all the fun and allure of the ultimate immersive game,” according to NBC. Black is host and Game Master. The stars unlock a series of puzzle rooms to ultimately engineer their escape and gain their freedom.
In addition to Stiller and Black, Celebrity Escape Room is executive produced by Christine Taylor, Nicholas Weinstock, Amiira Ruotola and Lee Metzger. The show is produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio, Red Hour Productions and Electric Dynamite.
Besides watching, viewers can support Red Nose Day by purchasing red noses at Walgreens for $1 and donating at rednoseday.org. ■
