The Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night was a ratings bust.
Total viewers was 4.1 million, down from 4.5 million last year. That’s at least better than 2023, when the show dropped by 1 million from 2022.
The Honors had a strong lead in from football than “60 Minutes,” which had 8.7 million fans Sunday night. But fewer than half of those people — who should be Kennedy Center Honors aficionados — stuck around.
It didn’t help that the show began with Queen Latifah in an absolutely excruciating number. This has been the trend lately for this show, opening with something that has nothing to do with the Honors themselves. It’s a big waste of time and money.
The Honorees this year were fine if not exciting: Bonnie Raitt, Francis Ford Coppola, Arturo Sandoval, the Grateful Dead, and the Apollo Theater were a curious mix.
The Bonnie Raitt segment was excellent, with Julia Louis Dreyfus, Sheryl Crow and the ubiquitous Brandi Carlile doing the toasting.
But then things got weird. Grace van der Waal — who? — singing “The Impossible Dream” was maybe the strangest performance ever. This had nothing whatsoever to do with Coppola. If they needed music, why didn’t they have an orchestra perform the Theme from the Godfather? Where were Sofia Coppola? Nephew Nicolas Cage?
Worse yet was the Apollo segment. None of the living performers from the Apollo performed. Where were Smokey Robinson, Sam Moore, Gladys Knight? There seemed to be no sense of the excitement of the Apollo, the first institution to be inducted into the Kennedy Center (which was odd enough).
And then, the Grateful Dead. Not a group with wonderful songs, and John Mayer — who owns 51% of the sequel Dead & Co band, was just on video. Wasn’t he supposed to be the hook? The segment also lacked the Dead’s two biggest hits, “Truckin'” and “Touch of Grey.”
The Honors felt stale. None of the people the public want, like Denzel Washington or Liza Minnelli, made the cut. There’s no humor, and it all feels like an obligation. It’s definitely time to get back to the George Stevens, Jr recipe for making the show vibrant.
PS Where was Caroline Kennedy, introducing the show and explaining its importance?
