There are two big reasons to watch WKYT-TV 27 (Insight Channel 9 in Lexington) tonight:

UPDATE: Scott Shive won Dec. 30, taking in $33,601 and besting Stevens by more than $10,000. He’ll be the defending champion Dec. 31.

Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek and LexGo editor Scott Shive. Photo from Jeopardy Productions Inc.

~ Scott Shive, the editor of LexGo and arts and entertainment editor of the Herald-Leader, is on Jeopardy! at 7:30 tonight facing down Fairview Park, Ohio’s Jim Stevens who’s already won something like $140,000. Doesn’t that seem like enough? Anyway, Scott is sworn to secrecy, so even those of us who work mere feet from him don’t know how he did — the show was taped in Novemeber. I will say all three contestants, including Stevens, dropped several questions last night that Scott could have easily answered.

Click here to read Scott’s account of his Jeopardy! experience and here to see his Jeopardy! video greeting (they need to make those embedable).

~ At 9 p.m., catch the Kennedy Center Honors, usually one of  the best awards shows of the year. You’re not sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for results — like we are with Scott — but it is often an evening of great performances. The honorees tonight include Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman, Twyla Tharp, George Jones, and The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. Among those paying tribute to the honorees will be Beyoncé, Jack Black, Garth Brooks, Clint Eastwood, Alan Jackson, B.B. King, Idina Menzel, Ne-Yo, Brad Paisley, Queen Latifah, Joss Stone, Koko Taylor, Lily Tomlin, Randy Travis and Denzel Washington.

Gerald Finley as J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Metropolitan Opera's production of John Adams' "Dr. Atomic." Copyrighted photo by Ken Howard for the Metropolitan Opera.

Speaking of great performances: Some opera fans may have noticed KET did not air Great Performances‘ presentation of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of John Adams’ Dr. Atomic last night. It was scheduled to run at 9 p.m. nationally, but did not air until 1 a.m. here. If you’re like me and have a season pass to Great Performances on your TiVo, fine. Otherwise, you have to wait until Jan. 17 . . . at 2 a.m. This seemed a bit odd, since Dr. Atomic was sort of a big deal on the Met’s schedule this year, so we caught up with KET program director Craig Cornwell to ask what happened.

With Dr. Atomic, specifically, Cornwell said the program was not added to the PBS lineup until after KET had already printed its program guide, and the station is loathe to deviate from the guide because viewers get upset about that. With operas in general, Cornwell says they are difficult to program because they are usually so long, and, “We don’t have many three-hour blocks of time avaialble in our schedule.” He also noted that opera doesn’t attract a large audience but added, “There are passionate opera fans out there we hear from,” and “We feel it’s a viable art form and are committed to showing it.” He said there are quite a few operas scheduled in the new year and many will get prime-time airings.