If you’re like me, you stopped watching “Celebrity Apprentice” (8 p.m., NBC) when “Lost” returned. The choice between one of the best dramas ever broadcast and yet another incarnation of a tired franchise was not difficult.

By happenstance, “Apprentice” concludes with a two-hour finale on the very night that “Lost” reruns return and “CSI” takes a break for the NCAA Tournament.

For those who care, it all comes down to country singer Trace Adkins and “America’s Got Talent” host Piers Morgan. The two men are playing, not for a job, but to win $250,000 for their favorite charities.

It’s interesting to note how much “Celebrity Apprentice” seems to have inspired that other charity showcase, “Oprah’s Big Give.” Both shows pit challengers against each other in cutthroat competition in the quest to do good. And both tout the significance of their well-branded hosts.

Indeed, the real lessons of the series are that while charity is great and the poor will always be with us, more importantly, The Donald and Oprah will endure.

l One hardly expects commercial television to critique the corporate values and capitalist cheerleading found on “The Apprentice” and “Big Give.” But the four-part PBS special “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” (9 p.m., PBS, check local listings) does just that.

Sean Hannity never tires of reminding us that we live in the greatest, richest country in the world with the greatest health care system. So why is the United States so far down on the list of healthy nations? People in Jordan now outlive us. Our infant mortality rate is below that of Slovenia and Portugal. Why?

“Unnatural Causes” argues that this problem transcends the debate over health insurance and care. It offers evidence that average life expectancy and health are very much tied to class, status, wealth, home ownership and race. It also contends that many of these problems cannot be solved by individual choices – by quitting smoking, eating right and exercise. It argues that the way our society is structured and the way we allocate resources turns large segments of our society into “born losers” destined to live sicker and die younger than other Americans. It’s a powerful and sobering report.

Decades of evidence suggests that people at the lower rungs of the workforce, who live in poorer and more dangerous neighborhoods, suffer a staggering load of daily stresses that arise from a feeling of powerlessness and anxiety and that this stress is quite literally toxic.

In a show filled with staggering statistics, two stand out. Many Latino immigrants enter this country in fine health only to suffer a radical decline. In a sobering clip, billionaire Warren Buffett warns of the long-term effects of the tax policies that have made him one of the richest people on the planet and that have made the United States a nation where the top 1 percent are richer than the bottom 90 percent.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Back-to-back games of the NCAA College Basketball Tournament (6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., approximately, CBS).

¢ On two helpings of “Miss Guided” (ABC, Becky breaks bad (7 p.m.), party planning (7:30 p.m.).

¢ Charlie’s message takes on several meanings on “Lost” (8 p.m., ABC).

¢ Eli takes on a freedom-of-expression case on “Eli Stone” (9 p.m., ABC).