Kennedy Center Honors moves to Capital One Arena for first time in nearly 50-year history

The Kennedy Center Honors — one of Washington's most enduring cultural rituals — will leave its home for the first time in nearly 50 years. The 49th annual ceremony is scheduled for December 7 at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., the Kennedy Center announced Friday, with the performing arts center's main building closed and its future genuinely uncertain.

No explanation for the change was given, and few details were immediately available. The center said it will announce this year's honorees at a later date. A broadcast partner has also yet to be named — a notable gap, given that CBS carried the ceremony every year from 1978 through 2025, when that contract ended, according to a source familiar with the agreement.

Capital One Arena, home to the Washington Capitals hockey team, the Washington Wizards, and Georgetown University's men's basketball team, seats around 20,000 people — roughly nine times the capacity of the Kennedy Center's Opera House, where the ceremony has traditionally been held. Even the 2020 Honors, delayed to May 2021 by the coronavirus pandemic, still featured performances taped at various locations across the Kennedy Center's campus.

The center's main theaters have been closed since September 15, after the board voted to shut the building for renovations. In court filings, Executive Director Matt Floca said the closure would be reconsidered week by week depending on ongoing safety assessments. The board cited a partial ceiling collapse in the center's Grand Foyer as evidence the building needed to be immediately closed for repairs, with a construction consultant and the center's director concluding the main building is 'unsafe for continued occupancy.'

The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board's approved name. If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.— President Donald Trump

That post, on Truth Social in September, captures the bind the institution is in. Trump has pushed to have his name added to the building's facade and an outdoor plaza. A federal judge has blocked that move multiple times, and Trump has appealed. The Trump-aligned board has signaled the full renovation — for which Congress appropriated over $250 million last year — may not proceed if the courts do not allow the renaming.

The stakes have escalated further. Last month, Trump was photographed on Air Force One reviewing what appeared to be a placard reading 'Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED' over an image of a demolition. This week, he declined to commit to not demolishing the center without congressional consent, telling TIME magazine, 'We're going to see how it plays out in court.' The White House declined to comment to NBC News about the venue change for the Honors.

Trump hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at the performing arts center itself, praising the honorees — Sylvester Stallone, Kiss, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, and George Strait — as 'among the greatest artists and actors, performers, musicians, singers and songwriters ever to walk the face of the earth,' according to ABC News.

Whether Trump plans to attend the December 7 ceremony at Capital One Arena is unknown; ABC News said it has reached out to the White House on that question. What is clear is that the Honors will go on — just not where they have always gone on, and without the institutional certainty that has defined the event since its first broadcast nearly five decades ago.

Why it matters — The venue shift signals how deeply the legal and political battle over the Kennedy Center's future — its name, its renovation, and possibly its existence — has disrupted one of American cultural life's most durable institutions.

Reported by pbs.org, nbcnews.com, cbsnews.com, abcnews.com, reuters.com, bloomberg.com, people.com