{"id":223596,"date":"2026-01-02T14:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223596\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T14:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:53:09","slug":"kennedy-center-pushes-back-on-historic-low-honors-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223596\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy Center Pushes Back on Historic Low \u2018Honors\u2019 Ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe month of December was an eventful one for the Kennedy Center<\/a>. In the leadup to Christmas, the institution was controversially renamed<\/a>\u00a0Trump-Kennedy Center, with new signage installed. Then came the boycotts, the threat of retaliatory lawsuits, and the Dec. 23 broadcast of the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors<\/a>, which delivered all-time low ratings.<\/p>\n

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\n\tAnd this after Donald Trump<\/a>, who became the first sitting president to host the show, had predicted it would be \u201cthe highest-rated show that they\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat soft viewership result didn\u2019t reflect what was a \u201csuccessful night,\u201d say reps for the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cComparing this year\u2019s broadcast ratings to prior years is a classic apples-to-oranges comparison and evidence of far-left bias,\u201d Roma Daravi, vp of public relations for the Kennedy Center, said in a statement shared with\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. \u201cThe program performed extremely well across key demographics and platforms, despite industry and timing disadvantages, including a Tuesday air date two days before Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to THR, Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data reported the special averaged 4.1 million viewers, representing a 26% drop in viewership year-on-year.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince the 2024 show, however, Nielsen changed its methodology by launching its Big Data + Panel system that combines its traditional panel data with data from smart TVs and set-top boxes.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, notes, THR, the previous show was broadcast on a Sunday with an NFL lead-in, the Kennedy Center outlined on background.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith overall television usage down roughly 20 percent year over year, the broadcast still tied for the #1 spot among adults aged 25\u201354, alongside a live NBA doubleheader,\u201d Daravi adds. \u201cAnd on social media, Honors garnered 1.5 billion impressions in just one night \u2014 up from only 50 million similar impressions last year. This was a successful night celebrating the outstanding achievements of our Honorees at the Trump Kennedy Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the serving president traditionally sits in the balcony with the honorees, Trump took the stage three times during the 48th annual event, which this year feted Sylvester Stallone, KISS, George Strait, Gloria Gaynor and Broadway legend Michael Crawford.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe annual presentation took place Sunday, Dec. 7, and aired later in the month on CBS and Paramount+, following the announcement of plans to rename the Kennedy Center to The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n

\n\tEfforts to rename the Kennedy Center, reportedly approved by its board, could face legal hurdles. The original laws that guided the creation of the Kennedy Center specifically prohibited the renaming of the building. It would take an act of Congress to change that now.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat board looks a lot different than it did a year earlier. In February 2025, Trump abruptly fired members and installed himself as chair, writing in a post on Truth Social at the time, \u201cAt my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWeeks later, the newly installed members of the Kennedy Center board, handpicked by Trump, officially elected Trump as board chair.<\/p>\n

\n\tCelebrities who have disassociated themselves from the Kennedy Center this year include Rhiannon Giddens, Issa Rae<\/a>, Renee Fleming<\/a>, Shonda Rhimes and Ben Folds<\/a>. The landmark musical\u00a0Hamilton\u00a0and play\u00a0Eureka Day\u00a0soon cancelled performances at the center, while jazz supergroup The Cookers pulled out of a planned New Year\u2019s Eve<\/a> concert, and musician Chuck Redd scrapped a Christmas Eve performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The month of December was an eventful one for the Kennedy Center. In the leadup to Christmas, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[6971,13724,969,93,61,60,16720,97899,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-223596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-bbnews","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-kennedy-center","15":"tag-kennedy-center-honors","16":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}