Kennedy Center Honors 2026 Sets Date, New Venue

The 49th Kennedy Center Honors gala is set to go ahead on Dec. 7, 2026, but not at the now-shuttered Kennedy Center itself.

Instead, the annual Kennedy Center Honors will take place at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The Kennedy Center has been at the center of a legal battle as U.S. President Donald Trump has slammed a court decision to block his name, two times now, from being added to the building’s exterior.

The board at the arts institution also chose to shut down the Kennedy Center, with Trump in social media posts suggesting the closure would allow future renovations. Launched in 1978, the annual Kennedy Center Honors event recognizes individuals who have made lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts.

Past gala tributes took place at the Kennedy Center itself in in Washington, D.C. The Kennedy Center gala event will announce the 2026 honorees and a broadcaster for the program at a later date. The ratings for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Trump at the Kennedy Center, dropped to a new all-time low.

There’s no word on whether Trump will again host the 2026 Kennedy Center Honors event. Last year’s honors gala aired on CBS and Paramount+ amid news of Trump’s plans to rename the Kennedy Center to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

The push to rename the arts institution has drawn blowback, including by members of the Kennedy family and resulted in numerous artists dropping out of planned performance at the Kennedy Center.