A clip show of old Vanguard nights is exactly as useful as it sounds

CBS putting Donnie Wahlberg in front of old Video Vanguard performances is not a concert. It is a filing cabinet with applause. The form is familiar: a famous night, chopped into the parts that still clear rights, stitched to a voice that tells you it mattered. Sometimes it did. Often it was a good television minute that survived because the clip was clean.

There is a use. A Sunday holding pattern between football windows. A reminder that awards-show music is a genre with a half-life. There is also a tell. When a network programs memory this hard in September, it is because the live machine is busy elsewhere and the archive still sells. Score it as a special, not as a night you missed.

If you missed the original night, this is a mixtape with a host. If you did not, it is a commercial for the archive.