LOWEST RATINGS EVER FOR KENNEDY CENTER HONORS

Performances by Martina Arroyo, Herbie Hancock, Billy Joel, Shirley MacLaine and Carlos Santana, this year’s recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors, were not enough to prevent the CBS special, which has been losing ground almost annually, becoming the lowest-rated installment of the Honors telecasts since they began airing in 1991. The telecast, which averaged 7.09 million viewers over two hours, competed against NBC’s Sunday Night Football game featuring the Philadelphia Eagles the the Dallas Cowboys, which averaged 23.90 million viewers. Virtually everything else airing on primetime broadcast TV Sunday night was a rerun.