Kennedy Center Honors Viewership Drops 35% with Trump as Host
According to Cinemadrame News Agency, viewership for the Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Donald Trump, plummeted by 35%. Trump made history as the first sitting U.S. President to personally host the event.
Data from Nielsen reveals that the ceremony, which aired Tuesday night on CBS, drew only 2.65 million viewers, marking the lowest audience in the event’s history. Insider reports that this is a nearly 35% decrease compared to last year’s 4.1 million viewers.
Trump had previously announced his intention to rename the venue the “Trump-Kennedy Center.” Last Tuesday, he doubled down on this change on Truth Social, writing: “Tell me what you think of my ‘Emcee’ abilities. If they are very good, would you like me to give up the Presidency to be a full-time ‘Host’?”
CBS aired a pre-recorded version of the ceremony and edited out two minutes of Trump’s 12-minute speech. One of the cut segments included a joke directed at the audience, where Trump stated: “If there’s one thread that connects all these great artists, it’s the word ‘persistence.’ I know many of you, and you have persistence. Many of you are miserable, horrible people. But you have persistence, you don’t give up. Sometimes I wish you would give up, but you don’t.”
The ceremony, which took place on December 7, honored Michael Crawford, Sylvester Stallone, the rock band KISS, and George Strait.
According to unofficial reports, CBS News has instructed its staff not to use the new name for the venue. In an email obtained by The Washington Post, CBS management stated that any name change would require Congressional approval.
For comparison, just three years ago, the Kennedy Center Honors attracted nearly 5.2 million viewers.
