How about this for a stunning headline – a major professional sports league gets positive news for All-Star ratings!
After the Pro Bowl and NHL All-Star Game each suffered major declines, the NBA All-Star Weekend in New York reversed the trend of America seemingly losing interest in the festivities. Both the Saturday Night competitions and Sunday’s games saw double digit increases in ratings from last year.
The record-setting All-Star Game earned 7.2 million viewers and a 5.5 overnight rating for Turner, the final number being up 12% versus last year. That number does come with a caveat though as the game appeared on both TNT and TBS. How much of a difference that made in the increase is unknown at this time. Host city New York also drew an 8.8 rating, the highest ever for an All-Star Game on Turner.
And while the Slam Dunk Contest didn’t have the most star studded field in history, All-Star Saturday also saw an increase. 6.1 million viewers tuned in for a 3.4 rating, a 7% and 10% increase over last year’s numbers respectively. Even more encouraging for the association – it was the fourth most-watched Saturday night in the history of the event. Surprisingly enough, Cleveland led the way in local markets for Saturday night even though LeBron James continued his impressive streak of refusing to compete in the Slam Dunk Contest.
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend for the NBA. Zach LaVine saved us all from another year of wanting to burn the dunk contest alive, the 3 point shootout had one of its greatest fields ever assembled, and the game itself was able to walk the tightrope between “entertainment spectacle” and “glorified practice session” better than their NHL and NHL counterparts.
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