According to Nielsen data, the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors saw its lowest viewership to date, with the Donald Trump-hosted telecast drawing an average of just 3.01 million viewers via The Hollywood Reporter.

The ceremony saw a 26% year-over-year decline from the 4.1 million viewers recorded by Nielsen the previous year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It is important to note, however, that Nielsen has since updated its measurement approach, transitioning to a “Big Data + Panel” system that integrates traditional metrics with data from smart TVs and set-top boxes.

The 2025 ceremony, hosted by Trump, featured a diverse lineup of honorees, including Sylvester Stallone, KISS, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, and George Strait. The Hollywood Reporter says that despite the president’s predictions during the December 7 taping–and at a preceding event–that the telecast would achieve record-breaking viewership, the final numbers told a different story.

“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.”

Trump posted on Truth Social that he was named host of the Honors before the show aired on Dec. 23 and said, “at the request of the Board, and just about everybody else in America,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“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?”

Initial ratings for the telecast hovered around 2.65 million, though insiders suggested the total would rise once final data was processed. The broadcast on CBS and Paramount+ coincided with the revelation of Trump’s plan to add his name to the institution, effectively renaming it the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center,” via The Hollywood Reporter. 

“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 rebranding sparked widespread backlash, particularly from the Kennedy family, and led to immediate fallout within the arts community. Musician Chuck Redd withdrew from a scheduled Christmas Eve performance at the venue in protest. Explaining his decision to The Associated Press, Redd stated that seeing the name change finalized on both the website and the physical building prompted him to cancel the concert, according to The Hollywood Reporter.