Best-bets for Dec. 22: laughter and Wonder in the Kennedy Center

1) “Kennedy Center Honors,” 9-11 p.m., CBS. Each year, this celebrates the greats with smart films and potent performances. To honor Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, Justino Diaz and Motown founder Berry Gordy, we get great songs from Andra Day, Kelli O’Hara, Billy Porter, Norah Jones and more, including a superb finale with Stevie Wonder (shown here in a previous performance. But the surprise is the tribute to “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels. From Steve Martin to three “Weekend Update” desks, it ripples with wit. Read more…

1) “Kennedy Center Honors,” 9-11 p.m., CBS. Each year, this celebrates the greats with smart films and potent performances. To honor Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, Justino Diaz and Motown founder Berry Gordy, we get great songs from Andra Day, Kelli O’Hara, Billy Porter, Norah Jones and more, including a superb finale with Stevie Wonder (shown here in a previous performance. But the surprise is the tribute to “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels. From Steve Martin to three “Weekend Update” desks, it ripples with wit.

2) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” season-finale, 10 and 10:30 p.m., FXX; rerunning to 2 a.m. So far, this season has involved just three weeks and six episodes, most of them hilarious. Now “Sunny” wrap up its mini-year with two more episodes. The gang is in Ireland, where Dennis (who may have COVID) and his sister Dee are in a spooky castle, Mac is trying to become a priest and Charlie has met his pen pal. Tonight, one character climbs a mountain and another sinks into a bog.

3) “Live in Front of a Studio Audience,” 8-9:30 p.m., ABC. The first two “Live” specials started by re-creating “All in the Family” episodes, following them with “The Jeffersons” the first time and “Good Times” the second. Modern actors tackled great, old scripts. But this one inexplicably used shows that were never very good in the first place. We didn’t see the opener (“Facts of Life”), but the second (Kevin Hart and Damon Wayans as Arnold and Willis in “Diff’rent Strokes”) was mostly awful.

4) “The Masked Singer Christmas Singalong,” 8-10 p.m., Fox. Before choosing its winner (Jewel) and runner-up (Todrick Hall), this season unmasked people who are known for their music (Toni Braxton, Katharine McPhee, etc.) and people who aren’t (Honey Boo Boo, Larry the Cable Guy). Now some of the show’s favorites return with holiday music.

5) Cartoons, 8 p.m. There are three to choose from – the one-hour “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” on CW and two movies. NBC has “The Grinch” (2018); FX has the the entertaining “Sing” (repeating at 10:30) … on the same day that its sequel opens in theaters.

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