Kennedy Center Honors, ‘Dune’ Finale, Hallmark’s Mr. Christmas Makes His Debut, Marvel Wonders “What If?”

SUNDAY: Washington, D.C.’s fabled Kennedy Center rocks more than usual in 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 movies rock. The honorees get a night off from performing as famous fans salute them from the Opera House stage. Raitt’s tribute, led by Julia Louis Dreyfus, includes performances from 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 including Trombone Shorty. Show host Queen Latifah joins the Apollo Theater jubilee, with Dave Chappelle, Savion Glover, Doug E. Fresh, and The War and Treaty joining in. Robert De Niro leads the Francis Ford Coppola tribute, 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, and fellow director George Lucas. The climactic celebration of the Grateful Dead features David Letterman, actors Miles Teller and Chloe Sevigny, remembrances of the late band members Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, and performances from Don Was, Leon Bridges, Dave Matthews, Susan Tedeschi, and more.

SUNDAY: Getting to this point has often felt like a dense slog through a mythological thicket in the Dune prequel, but there are payoffs in the eventful 80-minute season finale, with game-changing twists within the Sisterhood (which will someday become the all-powerful Bene Gesserit) and the Imperium, led by the weak-willed Emperor Corrino (Mark Strong). While arrogant Mother Superior Valya (Emily Watson) prepares for a climactic showdown with soldier Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), whose influence with the Emperor may be on the wane as a palace coup brews, Valya’s troubled sister Tula (Olivia Williams) reflects on her own personal connection with the military hero-turned-zealot. Both Sisters have taken their eye off of their acolytes at an unfortunate time, when a possessed Lila (Chloe Lea) exposes the sect’s darkest secrets.

The Yule Log: Leading this weekend’s cornucopia of Christmas movies: Hallmark Channel’s Happy Howlidays (Saturday, 8/7c), featuring the debut of Ezra Moreland, the handsome winner of the Hallmark+ Finding Mr. Christmas reality competition. The model and former Navy rescue driver joins Hallmark’s hall of hunks as Max, a dog shelter owner who bonds with Seattle webpage editor Mia (Jessica Lowndes), who’s taken in a stray pooch at Christmastime.

On Lifetime, A Carpenter Christmas Romance (Saturday, 8/7c), pairs novelist Andrea (Sasha Pieterse), who’s bunkered in her family’s farmhouse to finish a book in private, with ex-crush Sam (Mitchell Slaggert), a woodworker helping rebuild the town of Wildwood after a fire. In Engaged by Christmas (8/7c), broken-hearted Zoe (Brittany Bristow) confronts advice columnist Dear Adora, only to learn Adora is a guy named Adam (Marcus Rosner). OWN‘s 24-Karat Christmas (Saturday, 9/8c) stars Samantha Marie Ware as jewelry designer Trish, who tracks down missing wedding bands with best man Book (Curtis Hamilton) before a Christmas Eve wedding deadline. Other highlights include Great American Family’s A Royal Christmas Ballet (Sunday, 8/7c), with Brittany Underwood as a former ballerina helping a team of royal ambassadors to stage The Nutcracker, and on UPtv, A Country Music Christmas (Saturday, 7/6c), North by North Pole: A Dial S Mystery (Sunday, 7/6c), and a new season of Small Town Christmas (Sunday, 9/8c), with visits to holiday celebrations in Oxford, Mississippi, and Bryson City, South Carolina.

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’s Jeffrey Wright) serving as narrator and guide for their alt-world adventures. With new episodes dropping over eight consecutive days, the characters braving 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, 10/9c, CBS): The true-crime series once again revisits the 1996 Christmas murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, with father John Ramsey revealing another theory of the crime in an interview with Erin Moriarty, who has covered the cold case since 1999.
• Saturday Night Live (Saturday, 11:30/10:30c, 8:30/PT, NBC): To close out 2024, former cast member (1984-85) and Only Murders in the Building star Martin Short returns for his third solo guest-hosting gig (his fifth overall) on 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 Capital City for the state bowling championship, with Glenn Close returning as the voice of Mona Simpson.
• Lucy Worsley’s Holmes vs. Doyle (Sunday, 8/7c, PBS): In the final episode, historian Lucy Worsley explores Arthur Conan Doyle’s decision to resurrect his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes. The ravages of World War I and the flu epidemic (which claimed his eldest son) led to his obsession with spiritualism, and a feud with Harry Houdini threatened to cloud his legacy.
• Sunday Night Football (Sunday, 8:15 pm/ET, NBC): The Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Dallas Cowboys in the prime-time match.
• Earth Abides (Sunday, 9/8c, MGM+): In back-to-back episodes of the postapocalyptic drama, the not-so-safe haven of San Lupo experiences a drought, and then the return of the virus.
• Landman (streaming on Paramount+): Hard to say what’s a more troubling issue for Tommy (Billy Bob Thornton): his dealings with the cartel or with his ex, Angela (Ali Larter), and daughter Ainsley (Michelle Randolph) as they settle in.