• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Kennedy Center Honors on CBS averaged 3.0 million viewers, down 27% from a year ago (4.1 million) -- an event that was hosted, for the first time, by U.S. president Donald Trump.

And with all the positive feelings about his role -- as well as also adding his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts -- now called The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts -- the President made a bold prediction twice before the CBS TV event.

“I believe — and I’m gonna make a prediction — this will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done, and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s gonna happen tomorrow night,” said Trump a day before the event.

This is bad news on two accounts. Not just the big dip versus a year ago, but that Nielsen changed its measurement to Nielsen Big Data + Panel, which adds in millions of homes with cable/satellite TV set top box and smart TVs sets -- some 45 million homes added to its panel of 42,000 homes.

To date all this has pushed up live events and sports as well as smaller, niche programming -- generally by 5% to 10%, according to analysts.

Not only did it not deliver the “highest-rated” show for the series ever, it did not come close to the actual highest --- 9.25 million Nielsen-measured viewers in 2014.

Then again, this is old news -- when it comes to TV shows Trump has been associated with..

Last year, former NBCUniversal Chief Marketing Officer John Miller, commenting to CNN on a piece he wrote in the U.S. News and World Report, that Trump kept lying about “The Apprentice”, a show he was on.

Trump continued to say it was the number one show in America. It was never the number one show in America.

Hmmm... maybe Trump was counting on the updated Nielsen system to deliver him better news?

So what happens next year -- and in 2027 and 2028? Will things change? Will the FCC get involved?

If Trump really want higher ratings, he needs better promotion. He should forget about an interview on Fox News Channel. Why not merge some of the biggest TV and Trump-related stories together of a recent period?

The easy way is for Trump to get a guest spot on Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert’s late-night shows. Yes, that’s crazy.

But isn’t this all about a higher viewership/profile for a president whose approval ratings is perhaps the lowest ever for a President?

Would Kimmel or Colbert make his overall numbers higher? Sure, just call it a “The Donald Trump Toast... & Roast”. (Winky emoji goes here).