XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.trump   
   From: super70s@super70s.invalid   
      
   Maybe something like, "the TV ratings are sponsored by radical left   
   Democrats and George Soros."   
      
      
   Trump Humiliated as He Scores Lowest Kennedy Center Ratings Ever   
   By Erkki Forster   
   The Daily Beast   
   Thu, December 25, 2025 at 8:20 PM CST   
      
   President Donald Trump's Kennedy Center Honors hosting debut on Tuesday   
   flopped badly.   
      
   Preliminary ratings data show CBS's broadcast of the awards show   
   attracted its smallest audience ever, according to Programming Insider.   
      
   The 48th Kennedy Center Honors averaged roughly 2.65 million viewers on   
   Tuesday, a 35 percent decline from the 4.1 million who tuned in for the   
   2024 ceremony, the outlet reported.   
      
   Trump, the first president to host the awards, had boasted before the   
   show that the center's board and "just about everybody else in America"   
   wanted him to serve as emcee for the evening.   
      
   He dubbed the event "THE TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER HONORS" after a board   
   packed with Trump loyalists voted last week to add Trump's name to the   
   longstanding memorial to John F. Kennedy -- a move which several   
   members of the Kennedy family have railed against.   
      
   The former reality TV star even mused on Truth Social about abandoning   
   the presidency for television, should audiences approve of his   
   performance.   
      
   "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?" he asked.   
      
   Trump had boasted before the show that the center's board and "just   
   about everybody else in America" wanted him to host the awards   
      
   CBS aired the pre-recorded ceremony without indulging Trump's rebrand   
   and trimmed his opening remarks from roughly 12 minutes to about two   
   minutes.   
      
   The network cut out some of his freewheeling asides  --  including his   
   crack at the laughing crowd as "horrible people."   
      
   "If there is one thread that connects all of these amazing artists   
   together, it is the word 'persistence,'" Trump said. "I know so many of   
   you, and you are persistent. Many of you are miserable, horrible   
   people. But you are persistent, you never give up. Sometimes I wish   
   you'd give up, but you don't."   
      
   Ratings for Kennedy Center Honors broadcasts have been on the decline,   
   with 2024's 4.1 million viewers already a record low, according to   
   Vulture's Josef Adalian, who noted that 5.2 million viewers tuned in in   
   2022.   
      
   Adalian said Tuesday's broadcast performed even more poorly among   
   "demos" -- advertisers' most valued age group -- coming in at roughly   
   half of 2024's ratings. He called the numbers a "massacre."   
      
   The 2025 awards show, which was held on Dec. 7, celebrated songwriter   
   George Strait, actors Michael Crawford and Sylvester Stallone, singer   
   Gloria Gaynor, and the rock band KISS.   
      
   The honorees were picked by the Kennedy Center board, which Trump   
   hijacked in February when he fired its existing members and installed   
   himself as chair.   
      
   The 2024 Kennedy Center Honors, which took place under President Joe   
   Biden, honored The Godfather filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, the rock   
   band the Grateful Dead, singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt, jazz musician   
   Arturo Sandoval, and the Apollo, a New York City arts institution.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)