Tony Bennett’s ‘Unplugged’ Specials Set To Air Back-To-Back On MTV Three Times Starting Tonight; CBS To Air ‘One Last Time’ Concert Special Sunday – Update

UPDATED with CBS special: MTV has set three back-to-back re-airings of its two Unplugged specials featuring Tony Bennett, commemorating the beloved singer’s death today at 96. MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett from 1994 will return tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT, followed by 2021’s MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga at 11.

Both will repeat starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and at 7 p.m. Sunday.

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Bennett’s first Unplugged aired as the second episode of MTV’s fifth season of the acoustic-concert series and spawned a smash album. The 20-track set of standards from the Great American Songbook barely dented the Billboard Top 50 but won Album of the Year and another Grammy and eventually sold more than a million copies. Recorded on April 15, 1994, at Sony Studios in Manhattan, the show — which also featured Elvis Costello and k.d. lang — and the disc helped introduce the legendary singer to yet another generation of fans.

When Bennett was a guest on Late Night with Conan O’Brien later that year, the host asked him about the reasons for his newfound hip status. “Hey, I’ve been unplugged all my life,” the singer said.

Fast-forward 17 years, and the cable channel aired a second MTV Unplugged with Bennett, this time also featuring his latter-day collaborator Lady Gaga. That show was recorded in NYC on July 2, 2021, a few months after Bennett and his family revealed his Alzheimer’s diagnosis. He was 94 and she was 35 when they performed a slew of Cole Porter standards they had recorded a few months earlier for the Top 10 album Love for Sale.

That LP gave Bennett the Guinness World Record for oldest person to release an album of all-original material. MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga was not released as an album, however.

CBS will air One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, a concert special honoring the musical legacy and enduring friendship of the two musical icons, on Sunday, July 23 at 9 pm. It originally aired Sunday, November 28, 2021.

Filmed at two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall in August 2021 to celebrate Bennett’s 95^th birthday, the live concert honors the duo’s shared love of the Great American Songbook. The special, which includes Bennett’s historic last concert appearance before announcing his retirement from touring, also features solo performances by him and Lady Gaga, followed by several of their famous duets.

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