With the NBA in the midst of a down year for ratings nationwide, it’s no surprise that the league’s All-Star Game also was off from last season. Despite being on two networks (TBS and TNT), the game averaged a combined 3.8 rating with 6.8 million viewers.
That’s down 12 percent in ratings and 11 percent in viewers from the 2018 game, which garnered a 4.3 rating and 7.65 million viewers.
The 3.8 rating ties the lowest-rated games from both 2008 and 2010. The viewership is the second lowest ever, just above the 2008 game, which had 6.33 million people watching.
Up until this season, the NBA All-Star Game had been holding steady at a 4.2-4.3 rating with between 7.2 — 7.8 million viewers. As the NBA has been seeing lower numbers both regionally and on TNT, the slide for this year’s All-Star Game was a natural progression.
In the key 18-49 adults demographic, the rating was a 2.8 and that was down 15% from 2018’s 3.3 rating. It also was down in the 18-34 group with a 2.6 number (3.5 in 2018) and down in the 25-54 range as well.
Overall, the NBA All-Star Game trailed both the NFL Pro Bowl, which had a 5.1 rating and 8.2 million viewers, and the MLB All-Star Game with a 5.2 rating and 8.7 million viewers. However, the one positive in this comparison is that the NBA beat both MLB and NFL in adults 18-49, 2.8 for NBA, 2.2 for NFL, and 2.1 for MLB, by a wide margin.
The NBA All-Star Game was the second highest rated sporting event of the weekend behind the Daytona 500 on Fox, which scored a 5.3 rating.
But the main takeaway is that the NBA All-Star Game continues the trend of the current season with a lower rating. We’ll see if this continues in the second half of the regular season.
