David Letterman earns Kennedy Center Honors

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David LettermanBroadcasting the 35th Annual Kennedy Center Honors program will be an especially pleasurable task for CBS this time around – its own late night icon David Letterman is one of the esteemed honorees.


Being honored along with Letterman are musician Buddy Guy, actor Dustin Hoffman, ballerina Natalia Makarova and rock band Led Zeppelin.

The awards program is scheduled for 12/26/12 from 9PM-11PM ET/PT. The President and First Lady will receive the honorees at the White House prior to the program.

“With their extraordinary talent, creativity and tenacity, the seven 2012 Kennedy Center Honorees have contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world,” said Kennedy Center Chairman David M. Rubenstein. “Buddy Guy is a titan of the blues and has been a tremendous influence on virtually everyone who has picked up an electric guitar in the last half century; Dustin Hoffman’s unyielding commitment to the wide variety of roles he plays has made him one of the most versatile and iconoclastic actors of this or any other generation; David Letterman is one of the most influential personalities in the history of television, entertaining an entire generation of late-night viewers with his unconventional wit and charm; Natalia Makarova’s profound artistry has ignited the stages of the world’s greatest ballet companies and continues to pass the torch to the next generation of dancers; and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant transformed the sound of rock and roll with their lyricism and innovative song structures, infusing blues into the sound of rock and roll and laying the foundation for countless rock bands.”

The awards celebrate lifetime achievement and encompass a wide variety of artistic pursuits. The primary qualification for honorees is excellence.

RBR-TVBR observation: Congratulations! This writer actually remember Mr. Letterman’s short-lived daytime talker. I’ve grown up with Mr. Letterman, still steal some of his old jokes, and heartily applaud his reception of this award.