Kennedy Center Honors 2018 start time, recipients, and more

While there may not be too much in the way of new television programming tonight, you do at least have a chance now to see the latest Kennedy Center Honors! The show is airing tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern at CBS — it’s been pre-recorded for a while, but that doesn’t render you unable to enjoy some of the festivities!

The idea of the Kennedy Center Honors in general is a notable one — recognizing exceptional people who have contributed great things to the arts. Cher, Reba McEntire, piano player Philip Glass, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Andy Blankenbuehler and Alex Lacamoire are the recipients this year. What we love about this group is rather simple: These are people from a lot of different fields and are also, in part, unsung heroes. While Reba, Cher, and Lin-Manuel are all so famous that they don’t necessarily need last names, we wouldn’t say that everyone else in here is someone the average network viewer would be familiar with. Yet, their contributions are invaluable.

The broadcast tonight is hosted by another legend in Gloria Estefan, and while there is a part of us that laments the sort of limited ratings opportunities that come with the show airing tonight, it’s also rather nice that it gets almost a solo platform since there isn’t all that much in the way of competition airing elsewhere. It can have a little bit more of the night to itself to stand out and shine.

What may generate as many headlines as anything else with the Kennedy Centers Honors tonight is who isn’t there more so than who is — the President has opted to skip the event for the second straight year. This was at one point something that Presidents attended routinely as a celebration of the arts and Donald Trump is the first President in the past forty years to miss it on more than one occasion. There were still a number of political power-players from both sides of the aisle in attendance at the event this year, though, and we imagine that this is something that will continue in the years to come regardless of whether or not Trump turns up. This is similar in some ways to the White House Correspondents Dinner, another tradition that has been circumvented so far by the Trump Administration.

For those who do watch the show tonight, expect a tribute to great music with a number of lively people who love what they do.

Related News – Be sure to get some other information right now regarding the Kennedy Center

What do you think about the lineup for the Kennedy Center Honors this year? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: Kennedy Center.)