The Betty White Award for 2023: Tommy Smothers

For context, here's what comedian Steve Martin had to say about The Smothers Brothers, as someone who got his start writing for the show:

"The Smothers Brothers show continued to rankle the brass at both CBS and the federal halls of power. Sketches dealing with race, war, and politics mixed with anomalies such as Kate Smith singing "God Bless America," made it a hit in the ratings and at the watercooler. It thrived on controversy, but we writers didn't know the level of rancor the Brothers were facing. One morning in 1969, I was driving to work when I heard on the radio that the Smothers Brothers show had been ignominiously axed. Ostensibly, CBS canceled the show because of late delivery of an episode, but I knew what really had canceled it: a trickle down from President Nixon. The Brothers had surely made Nixon's enemies list, and probably all of us writers had, too, and the political pressure must have been too much for lumbering CBS, which didn't need static from the FCC. After the show's demise, our team of eight writers won Emmys, the academy's defiant response to the CBS brass."

From "Born Standing Up", by Steve Martin.