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The Trump–Kennedy Middle is pushing again on a latest media narrative that its annual Honors awards present suffered a scores flop beneath President Donald Trump in comparison with years prior, arguing that the published carried out strongly regardless of industry-wide headwinds and a dramatically completely different scheduling panorama.
“Evaluating this 12 months’s broadcast scores to prior years is a basic apples-to-oranges comparability and proof of far-left bias,” Roma Daravi, Trump–Kennedy Middle vp of public relations, advised Fox Information Digital of the scores. “This system carried out extraordinarily properly throughout key demographics and platforms, regardless of {industry} and timing disadvantages, together with a Tuesday air date two days earlier than Christmas.”
The forty eighth Kennedy Middle Honors awards present was held in Washington, D.C., Dec. 7 and honored artists equivalent to nation singer George Strait, the members of rock band KISS, Tony-award winner Michael Crawford, Grammy-winner Gloria Gaynor, and Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone. The awards present is held every year to have a good time “people whose distinctive inventive contributions have formed our world,” in keeping with its web site.
Trump hosted the occasion, with its broadcast held weeks late Dec. 23, 2025, on CBS and Paramount+.
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President Donald Trump and first girl Melania Trump attend the forty eighth annual Kennedy Middle Honors on the Kennedy Middle Dec. 7, 2025. (Allison Robbert/Getty Pictures)
The occasion averaged 3.01 million viewers, which is a 25% drop from 2024’s scores when a mean 4.1 million viewers tuned in, in keeping with a report from Nielsen Dwell + Identical Day Panel + Massive Information reported by Selection in December. The scores yielded headlines reporting that viewership “plummeted,” and late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert mocked Trump for internet hosting “the lowest-rated Kennedy Middle Honors telecast of all time,” as Kimmel stated in his Monday monologue.
Daravi countered that viewership for the awards present “tied for the #1 spot amongst adults aged 25–54, alongside a reside NBA doubleheader” whereas citing that total TV utilization is “down roughly 20 p.c 12 months over 12 months.”
The NBA’s Tuesday evening doubleheader Dec. 23, 2025, featured the Denver Nuggets visiting the Dallas Mavericks, adopted by the Houston Rockets taking over the Los Angeles Clippers.
“And on social media, Honors garnered 1.5 Billion impressions in only one evening—up from solely 50 Million comparable impressions final 12 months,” Daravi continued. “This was a profitable evening celebrating the excellent achievements of our Honorees on the Trump Kennedy Middle.”
Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley of KISS attend the forty eighth Kennedy Middle Honors at The Kennedy Middle Dec. 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi)
Trump predicted forward of the occasion that scores could be sky-high and that he would garner extra viewers than late-night host Kimmel, who’s a longtime critic and political foe of Trump’s. The president additionally predicted critics would “say, ‘He was horrible. He was horrible. It was a horrible state of affairs.’ No, we’ll do superb. I’ve watched a number of the those who host.”
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Trump celebrated through the occasion that “we’re bringing this constructing again to life like no one ever thought was even doable.” The Honors awards present raised a document $23 million, almost doubling 2024’s $12.7 million raised beneath the Biden administration’s remaining days.
The 2024 broadcast was additionally held on a Sunday and had an NFL viewership within the lead as much as this system, together with a New England Patriots versus Buffalo Payments recreation that afternoon.
President Donald Trump, left, presents actor Sylvester Stallone, proper, a medal for the 2025 Kennedy Middle Honorees throughout a medal presentation within the Oval Workplace of the White Home Dec. 6, 2025, in Washington. (Aaron Schwartz/Getty Pictures)
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The published was held simply days after the Trump administration introduced that the middle’s board of trustees unanimously voted to rename it “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Middle for the Performing Arts.”
Presidents appoint the vast majority of the board’s trustees, with Trump dismissing the beforehand appointed Board of Trustees “who don’t share our Imaginative and prescient for a Golden Age in Arts and Tradition” within the early weeks of his second administration. Trump can also be the primary and solely president to function the middle’s chairman of the board.
The identify change set off swift rebuke amongst Democrats, with nonvoting board members together with Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries and others claiming the transfer was unlawful because it didn’t earn congressional approval forward of time.
The middle stated that the board agreed Trump saved the establishment from monetary spoil throughout his second time period.
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“The Kennedy Middle Board of Trustees voted unanimously at the moment to call the establishment The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Middle for the Performing Arts,” Daravi advised Fox Information Digital of the identify change. “The unanimous vote acknowledges that the present Chairman saved the establishment from monetary spoil and bodily destruction.”
