The ratings for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Donald Trump, dropped to a new all-time low, with the telecast averaging 3.01 million viewers, according to Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data.
Last year’s show averaged 4.1 million viewers, per Nielsen, meaning this year’s honors dropped 26 percent in viewership year-on-year. However, Nielsen has changed its methodology since then, launching what it calls its “Big Data + Panel” system which combines its traditional panel data with data from smart TVs and set-top boxes.
This year’s ceremony saw Trump host, and the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Kiss, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford and George Strait honored. During the show, which was taped on Dec. 7, the president predicted that the broadcast would draw in the best ratings yet. He shared a similar sentiment during an event held a day before the Honors were filmed.
“I believe — and I’m gonna make a prediction — this will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done, and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s gonna happen tomorrow night,” Trump said. “We never had a president hosting the awards before. This is a first. I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews, right? You know, they’ll say, ‘He was horrible. He was terrible. It was a horrible situation.’ No, we’ll do fine. I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people, if I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Before the show aired on Dec. 23, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was named host of the Honors “at the request of the Board, and just about everybody else in America.”
“Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremonies’ abilities,” he wrote. “If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make ‘hosting’ a full time job?”
Preliminary ratings had viewership sitting at 2.65 million, though an insider predicted that the final numbers would ultimately deliver a higher total.
The honors aired on CBS and Paramount+ amid news of Trump’s plans to rename the Kennedy Center to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
“The Kennedy Center Board of Trustees voted unanimously today to name the institution The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, Roma Daravi, said in a statement at the time. “The unanimous vote recognizes that the current Chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction. The new Trump Kennedy Center reflects the unequivocal bipartisan support for America’s cultural center for generations to come.”
The decision has drawn much blowback, including by members of the Kennedy family. It also resulted in musician Chuck Redd dropping out of a planned performance at the Kennedy Center on Christmas Eve. Redd told the Associated Press, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.”
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 intends to host 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.
