As you might imagine, things at the Kennedy Center are a mess.
The Kennedy Center Honors tapes in six weeks on Sunday, December 7th. According to sources, no official producer has been named for the telecast.
Both White Cherry Entertainment and Done and Dusted, the two companies that alternate producing the telecast, are out.
“I can’t even imagine what that show will be like,” an insider told me.
One name that’s come up is Robert Deaton and George Flanegin, of Deaton Flanigen Productions in Nashville. Highly regarded, Deaton-Flanigen is already pretty busy next month: they produce the live broadcast of the Country Music Awards on November 19th. That would give them two weeks including Thanksgiving to put together the Kennedy Center Honors.
“They could do it,” says an expert on TV specials. “The question is, Would they?” I’ve left a message for them in Nashville.
The Kennedy Center honorees this year are George Strait, KISS, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor, and Sylvester Stallone. For first time producers in the facility, they would be handful. Plus, Donald Trump has declared that he will host the show, whatever that means. If Deaton-Flanegin is the producer, they could at least grab talent from the CMAs for George Strait.
The Kennedy Center Honors weekend also involves a number of events for the honorees including a brunch, a State Department dinner, and so on. I’m told that none of the usual invitees from previous years have received any information on where, when, or if those traditional parties are happening.
On top of that, faux opera singer Andrea Bocelli has been set to perform at the White House on Friday, December 5th, potentially upstaging the Kennedy Center Honors. (This is the reason Bocelli was at the Oval Office recently. He can’t see all the cheap gold ornaments that’s been glued everywhere.)
Meantime, the regular Kennedy Center schedule of shows, much downsized since Trump took over, is not having a great time. The government shutdown has hit local potential ticket buyers hard. There are plenty — and I mean plenty — of seats available for every show from the National Opera’s “Aida” to touring Broadway musicals. Government workers aren’t being paid, or even being laid off. So attending theater is not on their lists.
The government shutdown would also make it difficult for members of Congress to show up on December 7th — not just because the House and Senate are at work, but that they’d be photographed in black tie enjoying themselves while thousands of employees are eating from food banks.
My joke: maybe they can just have the Kennedy Center Honors in the East Wing. Too soon?
So stay tuned.
PS A big question: with all this activity, will we see or hear Barron Trump? He hasn’t been seen in public for most of 2025.
