The Kennedy Center has put a perplexing PR spin on the abysmal ratings for the latest TV broadcast of the Kennedy Center Honors, which was hosted by President Donald Trump.
This year’s honorees at the MAGA-fied venue were Trump-friendly artists George Strait, Sylvester Stallone, KISS, Michael Crawford, and Gloria Gaynor.
However, ratings for the event, broadcast on CBS on December 23, were historically low. The show averaged 3.01 million viewers, down 25 percent from the previous year.
2024’s ratings of 4.1 million viewers were a record low at the time. 2025’s Trumpified figures were almost half of 2022’s 5.3 million viewers, which included honorees U2 and Trump-foe George Clooney.
That didn’t stop the publicist for the Kennedy Center finding a way to blame Democrats for the fact Americans seemingly didn’t want to watch Trump—who had plugged the event on his social media—or the selection of antique talent.
“Comparing this year’s broadcast ratings to prior years is a classic apples-to-oranges comparison and evidence of far-left bias,” Roma Daravi, the VP of public relations for the Kennedy Center, said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
Most major events, from the Super Bowl to the Academy Awards, constantly compare year-to-year TV ratings to celebrate progress or track declines in viewership. The data is shared with advertisers, who fund commercial TV.
“The program performed extremely well across key demographics and platforms, despite industry and timing disadvantages, including a Tuesday air date two days before Christmas,” Davari said.
The actual event took place on December 7, with an edited version not aired until December 23. The 2024 ceremony, which featured honorees including Bonnie Raitt, the Grateful Dead, and Francis Ford Coppola, aired on a Sunday following an NFL game.
The publicist claimed overall television “usage” was down by around 20 percent year over year, and the Honors tied for the No.1 spot among adults aged 25-54 with a live NBA doubleheader.
“And on social media, Honors garnered 1.5 billion impressions in just one night — up from only 50 million similar impressions last year," Daravi said, happy to compare this year’s event with last year’s.
A string of artists have canceled shows after signage at the venue was changed to read “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
CBS did not refer to the venue with its new MAGA twist, with an email from CBS News’s standards department telling staff not to reference Trump’s name “unless quoting from those who don’t realize an official name change only comes from Congress.”
The president had promoted the CBS broadcast to his 11 million followers on Truth Social, saying that he was the choice of his self-appointed board “and just about everyone else in America” to host the event.
“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?” Trump said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
