Kennedy Center Honors Draws 35% Fewer Viewers Than Last Year

The Kennedy Center Honors, the annual honor given to individuals or groups in the performing arts since 1978, aired on CBS on December 23 (the event was held on December 7).

According to preliminary Nielsen data, the televised event drew an average of 2.65 million viewers, its smallest audience ever, down 35 percent from last year’s average of 4.1 million viewers.

This year, the event was renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center Honors, after the controversial renaming of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the Trump-Kennedy Center. The awards show was also hosted this year by President Trump, the first time a president has hosted the awards.

This year’s honorees were country music singer George Strait, rock band KISS (Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Ace Frehley), Tony winner Michael Crawford, Grammy winner Gloria Gaynor, and actor Sylvester Stallone.