Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Confirmed: Producer of Kennedy Center Honors is First Timer Robert Deaton, Well Known for Country Music Awards

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It’s going to be a very different Kennedy Center Honors.

The show, set for Sunday, December 5th, is getting a first time ever producer of the fabled evening.

As I reported the other day, and can now confirm, Robert is taking the reins from White Cherry Entertainment’s Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner. Not only did they decline, but also Done & Dusted, the other major producer of awards shows.

Deaton is well known as producer of the Country Music Awards and other country music shows. He’s got his hands full with the CMAs only a couple of weeks before the Kennedy Center. Also, he’s got to deal with Donald Trump as host of the show. Tylenol will be in much use.

The White House has also slotted in a concert by Andrea Bocelli in the middle of all this, totally separate from the Kennedy Center Honors. That is unless they get Bocelli to sing a KISS or “I Will Survive” for Gloria Gayner.

That would be worth watching!

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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