Despite his claim that “just about everybody” in American wanted him to host this year’s Kennedy Center Honors special, President Donald Trump didn’t get many people to watch the CBS broadcast on Tuesday night.
Citing preliminary Nielsen data, Programming Insider reported the Kennedy Center Honors special drew its “smallest audience ever” with an average of 2.65 million viewers, representing a 35 percent decrease from last year’s then-record-low 4.1 million viewers. That stat represents “a staggering drop for one of broadcast TV’s most traditionally reliable specials,” Programming Insider added.
Trump tried to hype up his Kennedy Center Honors hosting gig in a Truth Social post earlier in the day. “At the request of the Board, and just about everybody else in America, I am hosting the event,” he wrote. “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?”
This year’s Kennedy Center Honors — which were held in Washington, D.C., on December 7 — recognized George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor, Michael Crawford, and Sylvester Stallone. Tom Cruise was offered the honors but declined due to scheduling conflicts, according to The Washington Post.
The Post also reported this week that CBS cut Trump’s opening remarks from 12 minutes to two minutes for broadcast — and edited out his calling the audience “miserable, horrible people.”
The network did add a voiceover introducing the “Trump-Kennedy Center Honors on CBS,” per Entertainment Weekly, after the Kennedy Center’s board voted to rename the institution as the Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the renaming vote was unanimous, but Ohio Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a board member, said on social media that she was muted on the call, EW reports.
So far, CBS News is ignoring the name change, according to a standards-and-practices email cited by the Post. “Yesterday, the newly appointed board of the Kennedy Center voted to change the facility’s name to the Trump-Kennedy Center,” Jack Renaud, CBS’ senior director of standards and practices, wrote in the email. “But it would take Congressional approval to officially change the name. Therefore, CBS News will continue to use the ‘Kennedy Center.’”
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
