For the second time this year, stars gather in Washington for The Kennedy Center Honors (CBS, 9 p.m.). COVID postponed the 43rd event last year until months later in spring; this 44th annual event, held earlier this month, gets closer to the regular timetable for the lavish event that brings together many disciplines in honoring Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels, opera’s Justino Diaz and Motown founder Berry Gordy are the honorees. And the event is elevated a bit with the presence of the President and First Lady (along with the Vice President and first gentlemen and many other politicians) in the seats.
The Michaels salute guarantees a large presence of “SNL” stars past and present — and three different sets of Weekend Update anchors roasting their boss. The surprise might be Paul Simon serenading his old friend.
Brandi Carlile of course comes out to sing something from Mitchell’s “Blue”; Norah Jones, Herbie Hancock and Elle Goulding are also part of her salute (which could have used some of Joni’s peers, such as Judy Collins, there just to watch). Midler gets a lot of support from her past castmates on Broadway and in film (Barbara Hershey and Goldie Hawn among them).
The Diaz salute brings some of the top opera singers (and brings that whole field to broadcast TV the only time all year, including the Grammys). Saluting Gordy means bringing the top Motown survivors to celebrate and that means Smokey Robinson as well as Stevie Wonder, who never plays one of these events without doing at least three or four songs. We’ll see how many get squeezed into the broadcast.
Here’s a link to a report I did for Entertainment Weekly soon after the event.