Kohoutek was presented to the public to be the comet of the century, or even of the "Millennia" because it was predicted to be so bright. But this was the downfall of the comet astronomers that made a prediction that did not come true. The comet did indeed become barely visible to the naked eye in January 1974, and because of this it made it a "good" comet, just nothing spectacular like it was supposed to be. Still astronomers often predict comets to become brighter that they truly do.