President Donald Trump’s Christmas week in office culminated in a cascade of headline-grabbing activity, including his broadcast debut as an awards show host — of what preliminary ratings suggest were among the lowest-rated Kennedy Center Honors.
What followed was a Christmas Eve and Christmas Day posting spree in which the president twisted cheerful holiday greetings with vicious political attacks, calling out “Radical Left Scum” and blasting Democrats for policies on immigration, gender and crime.
Ahead of the Honors broadcast — taped Dec. 7 and aired Dec. 23 — Trump trumpeted his hosting gig with a post saying he was the choice of his self-appointed board “and just about everyone else in America.”
“Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremonies’ abilities. If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make ‘hosting’ a full time job?” the president wrote.
Preliminary ratings for this year’s show were well below last year’s (2.65 million compared to 4.1 million) though one insider cautioned that the final numbers, due in the next few days, should provide a higher total — though whether that is enough to overtake last year’s ratings low remains to be seen.
Somewhat lost in the shuffle of this year’s award show was the fact that CBS’ deal to televise the event has now ended, meaning that the Center will be bringing the TV and streaming rights to market in the next few months.
Normally those are numbers that would not draw many bidders, but this is no ordinary show. While it isn’t clear if Trump plans on hosting the event again, the show will be another opportunity for a media company to do a deal with Trump, and there is no shortage of companies that could be willing to engage.
CBS’ window to renew the deal lapsed earlier this year, but that was a decision made by the previous ownership. It is entirely possible that Paramount CEO David Ellison is willing to ink a new deal to keep the show in-house. And then there is Netflix, which has the streaming rights to the Kennedy Center’s other big program: The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which was awarded to Conan O’Brien earlier this year.
Netflix has a deal to acquire Warner Bros., and Paramount is also pursuing a bid. Both could face regulatory scrutiny and might find a deal for the show more appealing in that environment. Still other companies, like Versant or Fox, may be interested in cutting a deal knowing that they may want to pursue acquisitions in the future.
As crazy as it sounds, the notion that media mergers and acquisitions could be a driver for the TV rights to a niche awards show (this year’s Trump-selected honorees included Kiss’ Gene Simmons and Broadway’s original Phantom of the Opera Michael Crawford), it has become surprisingly plausible in the current environment.
Trump’s awards show hosting debut comes amid his highly controversial decision to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after himself.
The governing board, now packed with Trump allies, approved the rebranding of the nation’s premier arts institution as the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, a move that has drawn sharp legal and cultural criticism.
Opponents include members of the Kennedy family. Kerry Kennedy, sister to U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., pledged in a social media post to “grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building.” Her cousin, Maria Shriver, said in a post condemning the action, “Adding your name to a memorial already named in honor of a great man doesn’t make you a great man. Quite the contrary.”
Artists pulled out of holiday performances in protest, and CBS sidestepped the new name in its Kennedy Center Honors broadcast, underscoring the controversy.
Trump’s Christmas Eve and Christmas Day social media activity added another layer of chaos.
On Christmas Day, he unleashed more than 100 posts and reposts targeting familiar foes, including election conspiracies about the 2020 vote, attacks on Somali immigrants and amplified grievances about the media and political rivals.
His posts recycled debunked claims about voter fraud and promoted controversial videos from advisors and allies.
As if that wasn’t enough, the president also authorized military action abroad.
On Christmas Day, U.S. forces, acting at Trump’s direction, launched airstrikes against Islamic State-linked militants in northwest Nigeria, hitting targets the administration said were responsible for attacks against Christian communities.
Nigerian officials and outside analysts warned that framing the conflict strictly in religious terms risked oversimplifying complex security dynamics.
