President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend the 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors at the Kennedy Center Dec. 7, 2025. (Allison Robbert/Getty Images)
The event averaged 3.01 million viewers, which is a 25% drop from 2024's ratings when an average 4.1 million viewers tuned in, according to a report from Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data reported by Variety in December. The ratings yielded headlines reporting that viewership "plummeted," and late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert mocked Trump for hosting "the lowest-rated Kennedy Center Honors telecast of all time," as Kimmel said in his Monday monologue.
Daravi countered that viewership for the awards show "tied for the #1 spot among adults aged 25–54, alongside a live NBA doubleheader" while citing that overall TV usage is "down roughly 20 percent year over year."
The NBA’s Tuesday night doubleheader Dec. 23, 2025, featured the Denver Nuggets visiting the Dallas Mavericks, followed by the Houston Rockets taking on the Los Angeles Clippers.
"And on social media, Honors garnered 1.5 Billion impressions in just one night—up from only 50 Million similar impressions last year," Daravi continued. "This was a successful night celebrating the outstanding achievements of our Honorees at the Trump Kennedy Center."
President Donald Trump, left, presents actor Sylvester Stallone, right, a medal for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees during a medal presentation in the Oval Office of the White House Dec. 6, 2025, in Washington. (Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)
BOARD VOTES KENNEDY CENTER TO BE RENAMED 'TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER,' LEAVITT SAYS
The broadcast was held just days after the Trump administration announced that the center's board of trustees unanimously voted to rename it "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."
Presidents appoint the majority of the board's trustees, with Trump dismissing the previously appointed Board of Trustees "who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture" in the early weeks of his second administration. Trump is also the first and only president to serve as the center's chairman of the board.
The name change set off swift rebuke among Democrats, with nonvoting board members including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others claiming the move was illegal as it did not earn congressional approval ahead of time.
The center said that the board agreed Trump saved the institution from financial ruin during his second term.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
"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," Daravi told Fox News Digital of the name change. "The unanimous vote recognizes that the current Chairman saved the institution from financial ruin and physical destruction."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kennedy-center-blasts-far-left-bias-ratings-coverage-points-no-1-demographics-tie