The official ratings for the 48th Annual Kennedy Center Honors are in, and the Dec. 23 telecast averaged 3.01 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data.
That is an all-time low audience for the annual special, down from 4.1M Live+Same Day viewers last year when it aired on a Sunday with a football and 60 Minutes lead-in. This year, the event was broadcast on a Tuesday.
Established in 1978, the Kennedy Center Honors, which recognize “individuals whose unique contributions have shaped our world,” honored Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, KISS, George Strait, and Gloria Gaynor at the ceremony, which for the first time ever was hosted by a sitting U.S. President in Trump who previously headlined the NBC reality series The Apprentice.
“At the request of the Board, and just about everybody else in America, I am hosting the event,” he wrote on Truth Social last week. “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?”
The Kennedy Center Honors was held amid a series of controversial moves surrounding the center since Trump returned to office in January, including replacing most members of the Board of Trustees appointed by his Democratic predecessors, Trump becoming Chairman and, most recently, the name change of the memorial to The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. They have triggered a string of cancellations by scheduled performances, most recently this week.