CBS declined to honor President Donald Trump's wish to rename the Kennedy Center after himself during its poorly rated broadcast.
Ratings for Kennedy Center Honors, which was held earlier this month and aired last week, fell sharply this year compared to previous years after the board he appointed named him chairman and invited him to host the annual event, which was held Dec. 7 and aired Dec. 23, reported the Washington Post.
“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 a day before the event was held. “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.”
Kimmel has hosted the Oscars four times, but he's never hosted the Kennedy Center Honors, and this year's Trump-hosted broadcast fell off sharply from years past – down about 25 percent from last year, with an average of 3.01 million viewers – and generated virtually no online chatter.
"Ratings had already been declining for the CBS broadcast, with last year’s Honors hitting what was then a record low of 4.1 million viewers," the Post reported. "Viewership has dropped from 4.5 million watchers in 2023, and 5.3 million viewers in 2022. The broadcast’s tradition of not airing until weeks after the ceremony could have contributed to the falling numbers."
"But the center’s abnormally shrinking audience and growing financial woes have largely been tied to Trump’s unprecedented changes to the Kennedy Center," the report added, "which have sullied its reputation in the eyes of once-loyal performers and patrons."
Artists have pulled out of performances at the cultural institution and tickets sales have plummeted since Trump took over earlier this year, with 43 percent of tickets unsold as of September, compared to 93 percent sold or complementarily given away in fall 204 and 80 percent in 2023, and the board's decision to add Trump's name to the building could drive interest down further – although CBS did not honor that change.
"Trump had jokingly called the performing arts center the 'Trump Kennedy Center' during the Honors ceremony, less than two weeks before the name change," the Post reported. "But CBS didn’t end up honoring the new name during its broadcast. An email from the CBS News standards department instructed staff to omit Trump’s name when referring to the venue and the awards show 'unless quoting from those who don’t realize an official name change only comes from Congress.'"