The Kennedy Center Honors ratings fell sharply this year, the latest setback for the arts and culture institution since President Donald Trump’s takeover has led to a controversial renaming of the venue, waves of performance cancellations and plummeting ticket sales.
The show averaged 3.01 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s report, CBS publicist Julie Holland shared in an email Tuesday — down about 25 percent from the previous year. The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ratings.
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. 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. (This year, an edited version of the Dec. 7 event didn’t air until Dec. 23.) But the center’s abnormally shrinking audience and growing financial woes have largely been tied to Trump’s unprecedented changes to the Kennedy Center, which have sullied its reputation in the eyes of once-loyal performers and patrons.
Artists and audience members alike strongly condemned Trump’s appointment in February as chairman of the cultural hub after he was elected by a board of trustees he appointed. The same criticism continued in August, as Trump said he would host the Kennedy Center Honors, the first president to do so, after he avoided the awards ceremony during his first presidency.
When the latest bombshell hit earlier this month — that the board voted to rename the center to include the president’s name — it unleashed a fresh wave of uproar from the Kennedys and Democrats. Legal experts decried the name change as illegal, saying such an act requires congressional approval. A day later, Trump’s name was added to building signage, making it “the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” The decision also led to a surge of artists, including the jazz supergroup the Cookers, canceling their performances at the venue in protest.
Trump had jokingly called the performing arts center the “Trump Kennedy Center” during the Honors ceremony, less than two weeks before the name change. 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.”
Even before the renaming, the center’s attendance and finances had already suffered as a result of Trump’s changes. Solo acts, local performance groups and touring Broadway musicals, including “Hamilton,” pulled out of their scheduled performances following news in February that Trump would be chairman.
Music, theater and dance performances in the Kennedy Center’s three largest theaters have typically drawn near-full houses in recent years. But this fall, tens of thousands of seats remained empty, according to a Washington Post analysis, including for shows that reliably performed well in the past. The venue has since increased its Christian programming, with many of the events being free to the public.
Trump also overhauled the Kennedy Center’s leadership and team during his takeover, ousting David M. Rubenstein as chairman, replacing longtime president Deborah Rutter with Richard Grenell, and letting go of more than 100 employees through resignations and dismissals.
Travis M. Andrews, Janay Kingsberry, Scott Nover, Kelsey Ables and Dan Diamond have contributed to this report.
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