Peabody Award-winning music series Austin City Limits announces the second half of Season 45, with seven all-new installments to begin airing in January 2020 as part of the program’s fourteen-episode season. ACL has featured some of the most iconic performances in live music for four and a half decades, and continues with a stellar slate of broadcast episodes featuring highly-anticipated debuts from today’s most talked-about live acts, continuing Austin City Limits’ run as the longest-running music television show in history. The program returns on Saturday, January 4th at 8pm CT/9pm ET, ringing in the new decade with a new installment featuring two indie-rock originals, Sharon Van Etten and Lucy Dacus, in a spellbinding double bill that forecasts the genre’s future.
The season returns in January with many 2020 Grammy Award-nominees, including four of this year’s Best New Artist nominees: Billie Eilish, Rosalía, Black Pumas and Tank and The Bangas, all making ACL debuts. Global pop-phenom Billie Eilish dazzles in an epic hour filled with songs from her record-breaking, 2019 double-platinum debut studio album; Spanish singer-songwriter sensation Rosalía showcases her trailblazing fusion of classic flamenco, electronic beats and R&B in a must-see hour; Austin’s breakout Black Pumas perform a thrilling set of their progressive soul; and New Orleans R&B, funk and hip-hop outfit Tank and The Bangas deliver a freewheeling, genre-defying, joyful debut. Kentucky modern rock stars Cage The Elephant perform a showstopping, hit-filled set along with new gems. Two of indie music’s most acclaimed singer-songwriters, Sharon Van Etten and Lucy Dacus, deliver captivating performances in a breathtaking double bill. ACL showcases indie original Mitski in a rare live performance sharing an episode with eclectic North Carolina alt-rockers Rainbow Kitten Surprise. A season highlight is the long-awaited return of powerhouse rockers The Raconteurs, the supergroup featuring Jack White and Brendan Benson, in a performance for the ages, making their first appearance in over a decade.
Season 45 Broadcast Schedule (Second Half):
December 28 Austin City Limits 6th Annual Hall of Fame Honors
January 4 Sharon Van Etten/Lucy Dacus
January 11 The Raconteurs/Black Pumas
January 18 Mitski/Rainbow Kitten Surprise
January 25 Cage The Elephant/Tank and The Bangas
February 1 Billie Eilish
February 8 Rosalía
ACL’s Season 45 premiered in October with standout performances from Gary Clark Jr., Vampire Weekend, Steve Earle & The Dukes, H.E.R., Maggie Rogers, Kane Brown, Patty Griffin and more. The series will continue to broadcast fan-favorite encore episodes through the end of 2019. In what has become an ACL holiday tradition, the program will rebroadcast Tom Waits’ legendary December 1978 performance, one of the most requested episodes in ACL’s four-and-a-half decade archive. Tune-in on December 21st to see this classic Christmas episode.
A special broadcast of Austin City Limits 6th Annual Hall of Fame Honors premieres Saturday, December 28 at 8pm CT/9pm ET. Check local PBS listings for times. The hourlong special will be available to music fans everywhere to stream online beginning Sunday, December 29 @10am ET at pbs.org/austincitylimits. Austin City Limits celebrates the newest class of Hall of Fame Inductees, Shawn Colvin, Buddy Guy and Lyle Lovett, with best-in-class performances and collaborations from the 2019 ACL Hall of Fame induction ceremony, taped October 24, 2019. Performers include Jackson Browne, Jimmie Vaughan, Sarah Jarosz, Shemekia Copeland, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Edie Brickell and Willis Alan Ramsey, joined by special guest, Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, and hosted by Robert Earl Keen.