President Trumps takeover of The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. is coming at a critical moment for the venerable arts institution: It needs to figure out where The Kennedy Center Honors will be televised to millions of viewers across the country.

2025 will be the final year that the Honors are broadcast on CBS under its current rights deal, and the institution needs to settle its TV future at the same time that it contemplates a revamp of the event.

The Kennedy Center Honors are awarded by the Center each year to actors, musicians, comics and other individuals who have contributed to American arts and popular culture. The event is held at the institutions opera house, typically with the President in attendance. CBS has been the TV home of the Honors for all 47 years of their existence, stretching back to 1978. However, the networks long-term rights deal expires after this year. The Kennedy Center typically announces the honorees over the summer, with the event being televised toward the end of the year.

It is not clear if CBS intends to try and renew those rights, but it appears that the Kennedy Center board is gearing up for networks and streaming services to bid on what sounds like a heavily revamped awards show.

According to leaked audio of a Kennedy Center board meeting from earlier this month that was obtained by The New York Times, Trump suggested expanding the pool of honorees to include notable figures from sports, business, and politics. And he mused about possibly hosting the ceremony himself in an effort to encourage networks to bid on the rights, calling himself the king of ratings, a reference to his days as the host of the NBC competition series The Apprentice (Queen Latifah hosted last years installment).

In fact, the Honors are in need of a ratings boost. Last years broadcast averaged 4.1 million viewers, down from 4.5 million the year prior. When CBS signed its last deal in 2016, the Honors averaged 8.6 million viewers.

CBS parent company Paramount has been getting picky with its investments in live events. It allowed Disney to steal the Grammy Awards after more than 50 years on CBS, and some events like the MTV Movie and TV Awards, the EMAs, and the CMT Awards, have been placed on pause.

According to The Kennedy Centers financial records, the Honors are not a huge direct financial driver for the institution, with the vast majority of revenue derived from its programming (i.e., its stage shows and musical performances), and about 16 percent coming from the federal government.

That being said, the revenue is not nothing. The tax records indicate that the Honors brought in gross receipts of about $7.7 million in fiscal 2023. It is not clear how much of that comes from the CBS rights fee. It also recorded receipts of $3.9 million from The Mark Twain Prize, which streams on Netflix.

The Kennedy Center presented its latest Twain Prize to Conan OBrien on March 23. In his acceptance speech, the former late night talk show host thanked former Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter and board chairman David Rubenstein drawing an extended round of applause from the audience and also Kennedy Center staffers who, he said, were worried about what the future might bring.

The real benefit of both the Honors and Mark Twain Prize, of course, is bolstering the brand of The Kennedy Center, and awareness of its work, making it an essential part of visits to D.C. and a must-stop for shows and performers. The Honors, which will celebrate their 50th anniversary in just a few years, helped establish the Kennedy Center as a focal point of American culture.

Its ability to continue doing so in the future is now seemingly up for grabs.

A CBS spokesperson declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center did not respond to a request for comment.