The game was not competitive, but even if it had been, people may not have been interested. It is hard to know what positives the NBA can take away from the All-Star Game in Salt Lake City last weekend.
The game continued an unfortunate trend for the NBA, setting new record lows for ratings and viewers. The game averaged a 2.2 rating across TNT and TBS. That is a 29% drop from 2022.
An average audience of less than 4.6 million also represents a drop. It is down 27% from last year. It is also significantly lower than 2021, which saw the smallest audience ever to that point, with an average of under 6 million tuning in.
There was also bad news on Saturday night. The audience for the NBA’s All-Star Saturday Night festivities also experienced a major drop. Ratings fell 19% from 2022. This year’s Saturday night ratings were the lowest the event has drawn in over two decades.
Plenty of explanations are available for the continued ratings drop. The game is not interesting, this year’s game was missing LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo for much of the action and missing Steph Curry entirely, and the Daytona 500 delivered more than 8 million viewers. The explanations don’t solve the bigger problem though.
For years, the Pro Bowl was seen as an inconsequential exhibition game that wasn’t valued by either the players or the fans. The NFL decided to overhaul the proceedings. Whether or not it is now a better product is subjective, but it did outdraw the NBA All-Star Game this year.
Might that be something the NBA considers when evaluating the future of All-Star Weekend?
