What was meant to be Donald Trump’s big hosting gig at the 48th Kennedy Center Honors turned into a ratings nightmare of sorts. Turns out, the event witnessed a shocking 35% decline from last year’s broadcast, which had 4.1 million viewership, per preliminary Nielsen data, reported Programming Insider.
According to preliminary Nielsen data, “The Kennedy Center Honors” on CBS drew its smallest audience ever on the night of December 23, 2025, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers. To put that in perspective: the 2024 broadcast averaged 4.1 million … https://t.co/go5Gjk2I4t pic.twitter.com/KkDJaR8CFs
— Programming Insider (@PIUpdate) December 24, 2025
Citing preliminary Nielsen data in its report, Programming Insider stated, “The Kennedy Center Honors on CBS drew its smallest audience ever on the night of December 23, 2025, averaging an estimated 2.65 million viewers.”
Per the preliminary Nielsen data, the broadcast had a 4.1 million viewership in 2024. As for the 2025 event, the ratings of the Trump-hosted event crashed drastically.
Ever since reports about the staggeringly low ratings of the Donald Trump-hosted Kennedy Center Honors made their way on social media, netizens started trolling the President. “Nothing will upset Donald more than bad ratings,” a user commented. “A disgrace and an insult to the Kennedy memory,” read a second. “Trump made a mess of it. As he does,” a third read.
A netizen summed up Donald Trump’s hosting skills with these words: “Epic fail.” Another added, “It was unwatchable.” Some users on X started guessing how Trump would react to the low ratings. “You know who will announce this is fake data, and it was the most watched show ever,” a comment read.
Let’s just say, the comments surrounding Donald Trump’s hosting gig and the historical low ratings were not dying anytime soon. “But he said it would be the highest ratings ever,” an X user recalled. “I’m sure he’ll say it’s record-breaking,” another netizen claimed.
A curious netizen raised the question, “Did he beat Kimmel like he said he was going to do?” The mention of the talk show host in the comment wasn’t random. It happened because Trump previously claimed that he could beat Jimmy Kimmel in terms of hosting talent.
Donald Trump went as far as to claim this: “We’ve never had a President hosting the awards before. This is a first. I’m sure they’ll give me great reviews… If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be President.”
Ahead of the ceremony, in his Truth Social entry, an excited Donald Trump wrote about hosting and joked that he might consider quitting his Presidency to pursue hosting as a full-time job. “Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremony’ abilities. If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make “hosting” a full-time job,” Trump wrote.
Trump: “Tell me what you think of my ‘Master of Ceremony’ abilities. If really good, would you like me to leave the Presidency in order to make “hosting” a full time job?” pic.twitter.com/rwHxdWRKVM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 23, 2025
Earlier this week, the White House announced that the John F. Kennedy Center’s name has been changed to “Trump-Kennedy Center.”
Interestingly, before the event ended, Donald Trump claimed that the show would open to rave reviews and soaring ratings, which didn’t quite happen. “This is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center – not even a contest. There has never been anything like it and the show is already getting rave reviews,” The Guardian quoted Donald Trump as saying.
“Now, I will say that I guarantee the fake news is going to give me horrible – ‘He was horrible as an emcee. Don’t ever let that happen again!’ But I guarantee one thing: we’re going get big ratings today. This place is hot,” said Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, per the Guardian.
