The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

The 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors

A star-studded sing-along to Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” (Smokey Robinson! Lionel Richie! Caroline Kennedy!) is among the highlights of this salute to America’s artists, taped Dec. 4 in Washington, D.C. Along with Diamond, this year’s Kennedy Center honorees include Sonny Rollins, Yo-Yo Ma, and Meryl Streep. Tuesday, Dec. 27, at 9 p.m., CBS

Portlandia

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Creators and co-stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein return with more scathing sketches about Portland, Ore., and the crunchy-granola lifestyles of its denizens. In the second-season premiere, Armisen and Brownstein play a couple who venture to “SoCal,” where sunshine is so abundant that they feel compelled to don burkas to shield their pale and tender skin. Other characters include a pair of overprepared river rafters and the prickly proprietors of a feminist bookstore. Friday, Jan. 6, at 10 p.m., IFC

Absolutely Fabulous 20th Anniversary Special

Two decades after the premiere of the British comedy series about two dissolute fashion victims, Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley return to their roles so seamlessly it’s like they never left. Highlights of this hilarious special, the first of three, include one key character’s release from prison, a spoof of the Danish series The Killing, and a ribald re-enactment of the royal wedding. Sunday, Jan. 8, at 10 p.m., BBC America/Logo

American Experience: Billy the Kid

Henry McCarty, alias Billy the Kid, came to fame in the 1880s just as the mythology of the West was taking shape. Though seen as “the Robin Hood of New Mexico,” he was also a murderer. Tracing the colorful career of a skinny orphan who became the most wanted man west of the Pecos, American Experience shows how McCarty set the mold for an American pop-culture archetype: the gangster as hero. Tuesday, Jan. 10, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings

Independent Lens: Have You Heard From Johannesburg

This five-part documentary is an eye-opening history of the decades-long campaign to marshal much of the globe in the effort to end South African apartheid. Filmed across 10 years, it chronicles the tireless work of activist Oliver Tambo, the grassroots boycott of corporations doing business with the racist regime, the 1977 murder of Steve Biko, the 27-year imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, and much more. Thursdays, Jan. 12–19, at 9 p.m., and Jan. 26, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings

Other highlights

The Firm

Josh Lucas stars in this new legal drama, which takes its characters and setting from John Grisham’s 1991 legal thriller and its 1993 film adaptation. Sunday, Jan. 8, at 9 p.m., NBC

CBS This Morning

Charlie Rose and Gayle King will join incumbent Erica Hill as anchors of CBS’s revamped and renamed morning news program. Monday, Jan. 9, at 7 a.m., CBS

Golden Globe Awards

Despite having ruffled some celebrities’ feathers last year, comedian Ricky Gervais will return to host the ceremonies, broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton. Sunday, Jan. 15, at 8 p.m., NBC