NBA All-Star Saturday night earned cable’s largest NBA audience, excluding playoffs, in seven years.
TNT earned a 4.4 U.S. rating and 8.090 million viewers for NBA All-Star Saturday night, according to Nielsen fast-nationals, the largest audience in the 26-year history of the event.
Saturday’s telecast was up 42% in ratings and 49% in viewership from last year (3.1, 5.441M), and up 13% and 23%, respectively, from the previous record set in 2009 (3.9, 6.554M).
Viewership peaked from 10:30-11 PM ET, as 10.4 million viewers tuned into the NBA Slam-Dunk Contest. Clippers F Blake Griffin won the dunk contest, after a crowd (and advertiser) pleasing dunk over the official car of the NBA.
This marks the fourth time in five years that NBA All-Star Saturday Night has attracted a record audience. The lone exception was last year, when the event aired opposite NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics.
For some perspective, All-Star Saturday Night outdrew the 2009 MLB Home Run Derby on ESPN (4.0, 6.418M) and the 2010 NHL SuperSkills Competition on Versus (0.7, 1.183M).
NBA All-Star Saturday night drew the largest audience for any non-playoff NBA telecast on cable since the 2004 NBA All-Star Game (8.190M). In other words, Saturday’s festivities drew more viewers than each of the last six actual NBA All-Star Games.
(Turner Sports press release)
