Jimmy Kimmel returned from winter break late Monday night, and in his first monologue of 2026, he teased Donald Trump about the low ratings of the Kennedy Center Honors Live Broadcast.
“You know he hosted an awards ceremony during his vacation,” Kimmel said Monday at the beginning of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” broadcast. “Mr. Trump hosted the lowest-rated Kennedy Center Honors telecast in history after bragging about how great a host he was, how much better he was than me, and how big his ratings would be.”
The Kennedy Center Honors hosted by President Trump on Dec. 7 averaged 3.01 million viewers, according to a report from Nielsen Live + Same Day Panel + Big Data. This is a 25% decrease from 2024, when the show reached an all-time low of 4.1 million viewers.
“Hey, I don’t want to be the White House intern who had to cut that headline out of every newspaper and eat it,” Kimmel added. “You know, as I recall, he said he would resign if that happened. He said, ‘If I can’t beat Jimmy Kimmel, I don’t think I should be president.'” Hey, a deal is a deal. Return to Mar-a-Lago. ”
Trump became the first sitting president in history to host the Kennedy Center Honors, which honors “individuals whose unique contributions have shaped the world,” according to the group’s website. The 2025 winners were George Strait, Sylvester Stallone, Kiss, Michael Crawford, and Gloria Gaynor.
The president deepened his obsession with the Kennedy Center during his second term. In December, he changed the name of the historic forum to the “Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Performing Arts Center.” The name change caused a huge uproar, with several scheduled artists canceling their performances as a result.
