Americans don’t hand out knighthoods or believe in titled aristocracy, and that’s a good thing. Can you imagine Sir P. Diddy? Or the Baron Bill Gates? We tend to hand out honorariums.

Taped earlier this month, “The 27th Annual Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts” (8 p.m., CBS) recognizes the artistic contributions of actor, producer, writer and director Warren Beatty; husband-and-wife actors, writers and producers Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; singer and composer Elton John; soprano Joan Sutherland; and composer and conductor John Williams. Caroline Kennedy returns for the second year to host. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush are among those in attendance.

• Thirty-six Christmas Eves ago, television viewers cast their eyes at the heavens. On Christmas Eve 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft entered lunar obit and sent back video of the moon’s desolate surface and, more importantly, the first images of Earth in space from the vantage point of another heavenly body. To celebrate this remarkable anniversary, LeVar Burton is host to “Mission Space” (7 p.m., PAX), a one-hour glance at the past, present and future of space exploration.

Tonight’s other highlights

• A trip to Tokyo on “The Rebel Billionaire” (7 p.m., Fox). Let’s hope they don’t run into any stragglers from “America’s Next Top Model.”
• Luke and Lorelai take their romance public on “Gilmore Girls” (7 p.m., WB).
• “Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies” on “Nova” (7 p.m., PBS) looks at Soviet penetration of the Manhattan project.
• A woman (Lea Thompson) arranges the kidnapping of a child she believes to be her own on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).
• A bigamist becomes a suspect in his lover’s murder on “NYPD Blue” (9 p.m., ABC).

Late night

Dennis Quaid and Rusty Wallace appear on “Late Show with David Letterman” (10:35 p.m., CBS) … Jay Leno is host to Dustin Hoffman and Virginia Madsen on “The Tonight Show” (10:35 p.m., NBC).