Kennedy Center Honors 2026 Moving Forward — But Not at the Embattled Venue

The 49th annual Kennedy Center Honors will be held on Dec. 7 – the same date as last year’s event – but at a new and much larger venue. The honors have been held in the 2,347-capacity Opera House of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts since 1978, when they were first presented, but will move to Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., for this year’s event.

The awards will apparently continue to be called the Kennedy Center Honors, with President Donald Trump’s name not appearing. The names of both the venue and the awards have been a source of considerable tension in the past year.

The Kennedy Center will announce the 2026 honorees and the program’s broadcast partner at a later date, according to a Kennedy Center spokesperson. The Kennedy Center is already running late, compared to past years, in announcing the honorees. Last year’s five honorees, the first to be personally approved by President Trump, were announced on Aug. 13, 2025. The honorees were country icon George Strait, rock veterans KISS, Broadway star Michael Crawford, disco queen Gloria Gaynor and actor Sylvester Stallone. (Tom Cruise reportedly declined the honor that year, due to “scheduling conflicts.”)

(By way of comparison, the 2024 honorees, the last class to receive the honors under President Joe Biden, were filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, iconic rock band Grateful Dead, singer-songwriter-guitarist Bonnie Raitt, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and The Apollo Theater in Harlem, the first venue to receive the honor.)

The report that the Kennedy Center Honors will announce a broadcast partner at a later date is surprising. CBS has broadcast the Kennedy Center Honors every year from 1978 through 2025. The network did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

Capital One Arena is a prime location for concerts and cultural events in the D.C. region. The venue was the setting for a Howard University graduation speech by President Biden, and a book tour event by former first lady Michelle Obama. The arena served as the venue for President Trump’s second inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 2025. The day before, Trump held a rally in the arena.

Trump’s Fraught Relationship With the Kennedy Center

In 2017, the first year of his first term, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump decided not to participate in events honoring recipients of the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors to “allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.” The 2017 ceremony was held without them, marking the first time that neither the president nor the first lady attended. The Trumps also did not participate in the 2018 or 2019 editions. (The 2020 edition was delayed to May 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. By that point, Trump was out of office.) In his first term, Trump never once attended the annual gala, making him the first president to never attend the event during an entire term.

President Trump has taken a completely different approach since beginning his second term in January 2025. He took over the Kennedy Center as chairman in February 2025, firing trustees who had been appointed by President Biden and replacing them with his own picks.

Before Trump, presidents are believed to have had little or no involvement in the selection process of the Kennedy Center honorees. But Trump freely acknowledged — even bragged — that he was heavily involved in the 2025 selections. During an Aug. 13, 2025, press conference, Trump stated he was “about 98% involved” in selecting the 2025 honorees and explicitly noted that he personally “turned down plenty” of candidates for being “too woke.”

Trump also announced that he would host the gala himself, making him the first president — sitting or former — to serve in that role.

The 2025 Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony was taped 11 days before the venue’s name was changed to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. In the end, CBS kept the title of the program The 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, but prefaced the broadcast with a voiceover that stated, “And now, the Trump Kennedy Center Honors on CBS.” At the same time, a frame appeared on the screen that read “The Kennedy Center Honors” with these words underneath: “The following is a Donald J. Trump and Kennedy Center Production.”

The Kennedy Center closed on Sept. 15, 2026, when its board voted to shut down the main building for an estimated two-year renovation project. The board cited financial difficulties, bankruptcy risks and building safety concerns. The vote came on the heels of a federal judge blocking the board from adding President Trump’s name to the building without congressional approval. Many viewed the shutdown as a retaliatory gesture.

On Sept. 16, President Trump significantly ramped up the drama. He was photographed on Air Force One viewing a posterboard that appeared to say “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED” (the last word was partially obscured by the cabin window frame).

The photo was taken just hours after Trump had publicly mused that the landmark performing arts center would end up being “ripped down.” The photo was used as evidence in an ongoing federal lawsuit, leading a judge to order that the Trump administration must provide a 30-day advance notice before taking any demolition steps.

Kennedy Center Honors History

The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 as a memorial to President Kennedy, who had been assassinated in Dallas eight years earlier. The Kennedy Center Honors were first presented in 1978. The inaugural class consisted of contralto Marian Anderson, dancer-actor-singer Fred Astaire, choreographer George Balanchine, composer Richard Rodgers and pianist Arthur Rubinstein.

While the focus in the early years was on fine arts — heavy on classical and opera — over the decades, it has broadened to also include more popular forms of music. In 1987, B.B. King became the first blues artist to be inducted. Other performers who were the first in their genres to be honored were Roy Acuff for country in 1991, Aretha Franklin for R&B in 1994, Pete Seeger for folk in 1994, Bob Dylan for rock in 1997, Gloria Estefan for Latin music in 2017 and LL Cool J for rap in 2017.

The Kennedy Center Honors have long been regarded as one of the year’s classiest TV programs. The show has won 24 Primetime Emmys, including 10 awards as the year’s top program — from outstanding variety, music or comedy program in 1984 to outstanding variety special in 2013. The show’s music director has won twice for outstanding music direction — Rob Berman and Rob Mathes in 2012 and Rickey Minor in 2020.