Kennedy Center Honors

SUNDAY: Washington, DC’s storied Kennedy Center is rocking harder than usual at this year’s annual celebration of the arts, with tributes to the Grateful Dead, blues rocker Bonnie Raitt, Harlem’s Apollo Theater, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval – and, less musically, Francis Ford Coppola , whose films rock. The honorees receive an evening of performances as celebrity fans greet them from the opera house stage. Raitt’s tribute, directed by Julia Louis Dreyfus, includes performances by Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Keb Mo and Susan Tedeschi. Sandoval’s segment features Andy Garcia, who played the musician in an HBO biopic, trumpeter/composer Chris Botti and an ensemble that includes Trombone Shorty. The show’s host, Queen Latifah, attends the Apollo Theater’s anniversary with Dave Chappelle, Savion Glover, Doug E. Fresh and The War and Treaty. Robert De Niro leads the tribute to Francis Ford Coppola with family members Talia Shire (his sister), Jason Schwartzman (his nephew), Gia Coppola (his granddaughter) reminiscing with director Martin Scorsese, actors Al Pacino and Laurence Fishburne as well as his Fellow director George Lucas. The Grateful Dead’s culminating celebration includes David Letterman, actors Miles Teller and Chloe Sevigny, remembrances of late band members Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, and performances by Don Was, Leon Bridges, Dave Matthews, Susan Tedeschi and more.

Dune: Prophecy

SUNDAY: The journey to this point has often felt like an arduous trek through the mythological thicket of the world dune prequel, but it pays off in the eventful 80-minute season finale, with groundbreaking twists within the Sisterhood (which will one day become the all-powerful Bene Gesserit) and the Empire, led by the weak-willed Emperor Corrino (Mark Strong). ). As arrogant Mother Superior Valya (Emily Watson) prepares for a crucial showdown with soldier Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), whose influence over the emperor may be waning due to a palace coup, Valya’s worried sister Tula (Olivia Williams) thinks about her personal life Association with the military hero turned fanatic. Both sisters have lost sight of their acolytes at an unfortunate time when an obsessed Lila (Chloe Lea) reveals the cult’s darkest secrets.

Happy Holidays

The Christmas Protocol: Leading the cornucopia of Christmas movies this weekend is Hallmark Channel’s Happy Holidays (Saturday, 8/7c), featuring the debut of Ezra Moreland, the hunky Hallmark+ winner Find Mr. Christmas Reality competition. The model and former Navy rescue driver joins Hallmark’s cast as Max, a dog shelter owner who strikes up a friendship with Seattle website editor Mia (Jessica Lowndes), who has taken in a stray pooch at Christmas time.

For life, A Carpenter Christmas Romance (Saturday, 8/7c), brings together novelist Andrea (Sasha Pieterse), who is holed up in her family’s farmhouse to privately finish a book, with former heartthrob Sam (Mitchell Slaggert), a woodworker who dies after a fire at the Rebuilding the town of Wildwood helps. In Engaged at Christmas (8/7c), heartbroken Zoe (Brittany Bristow) confronts advice columnist Dear Adora, only to learn that Adora is a guy named Adam (Marcus Rosner). OWN 24 Karat Christmas (Saturday, 9/8c) stars Samantha Marie Ware as jewelry designer Trish, who, along with best man Book (Curtis Hamilton), tracks down missing wedding rings before the wedding deadline on Christmas Eve. Other highlights include Great American Family’s A royal Christmas ballet (Sunday, July 8), starring Brittany Underwood as a former ballerina who helps a team of royal ambassadors with the stage performance The Nutcrackerand on UPtv, A country Christmas (Saturday, 7/6c), North at the North Pole: A Dial-S Puzzle (Sunday, 7/6c) and a new season of Christmas in the small town (Sunday, August 9) with visits to holiday celebrations in Oxford, Mississippi and Bryson City, South Carolina.

What if…?

SUNDAY: For a third and final season, Marvel’s animation arm presents alternative scenarios for some of its most popular heroes, with The Watcher (voiced by Westworld(Jeffrey Wright) acts as narrator and guide for their adventures in the alternate world. New episodes appear every eight consecutive days. Characters taking on new fantasy universes include Captain America, the Winter Soldier, the Hulk, Agatha Harkness, Shang-Chi, Storm, Captain Peggy Carter and the Red Guardian.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• 48 hours (Saturday, Oct. 9, CBS): The true-crime series revisits the 1996 Christmas murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, with father John Ramsey revealing another theory of the crime in an interview with Erin Moriarty, who has been covering the cold case since 1999 onwards.
• Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30 a.m./10:30 a.m., 8:30 p.m./PT, NBC): Closing out 2024, former cast member (1984-85) and Just murders in the building Star Martin Short returns for his third solo guest presenting appearance (his fifth overall) in the traditional pre-Christmas episode. Hozier returns as musical guest for the second time.
• The Simpsons (Sunday, 8/7c, Fox): A new episode sends the Pin Pals to the state bowling championship in Capital City, with Glenn Close returning as the voice of Mona Simpson.
• Lucy Worsley’s Holmes vs. Doyle (Sunday, July 8, PBS): In the final episode, historian Lucy Worsley examines Arthur Conan Doyle’s decision to revive his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes. The devastation of World War I and the flu epidemic (which killed his eldest son) led to his obsession with spiritualism, and a feud with Harry Houdini threatened to tarnish his legacy.
• Football on Sunday evenings (Sunday, 8:15 p.m./ET, NBC): The Tampa Bay Buccaneers face the Dallas Cowboys in a primetime game.
• The earth remains (Sunday, Sept. 8, MGM+): In back-to-back episodes of the post-apocalyptic drama, the not-so-safe haven of San Lupo experiences a drought and then the return of the virus.
• Countryman (Streaming on Paramount+): It’s hard to say what’s more troubling for Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton): his dealings with the cartel or with his ex Angela (Ali Larter) and his daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) as they settle in.