In the interest of trying something new — and old — Sports Media Watch presents thoughts on the weekend in sports television. This may be a regular feature or a one-and-done.
How to make All-Star games watchable
Complaining about All-Star games is a greater tradition at this point than the games themselves, so any exception to the rule seems notable. In the past year, there have been two All-Star events that generated widespread praise and big ratings.
The first last July was the WNBA All-Star Game, which featured Caitlin Clark and a team of WNBA All-Stars facing the United States Olympic team. The WNBA has used the All Stars vs. Team USA format on several occasions through the years — the first was at Radio City Music Hall more than two decades ago — but as with everything Clark-related last season, it attracted considerably more eyeballs than usual. The more than three million who tuned in may have been largely watching for Clark, but were treated to a revenge game by Arike Ogunbowale, who lit up Team USA for 34 points after being spurned by the team.
The second, to be frank, is a bit of a stretch. The NHL Four Nations Face-Off may be a replacement for the league’s All-Star Game, but it is far from an exhibition. The week-long tournament is being played with playoff-level intensity and attracting playoff-and-final level audiences. Even the most ardent hockey fan would be hard-pressed to recall the result — or even the format — of last year’s All-Star Game, but one can expect most will be able to remember the beginning of Saturday’s United States-Canada game for years to come.
It would seem that the solution to the problem of All-Star games is eliminating the core element of All-Star games. These are traditionally exhibitions that mean nothing. There are no stakes and no real allegiances. Even played at their most intense in the rose-colored years gone by, an All-Star Game is an All-Star Game, remembered primarily for sentimental moments like an underdog John Scott, an ailing Magic Johnson, an elderly Ted Williams; a few entertaining plays here and there (a Tracy McGrady self alley-oop); or a memorable soundbite (“Our idiot kicker got liquored up and shot his mouth off …”). Rarely because the game was so good.
In order to ensure that these exhibitions are entertaining, one must make them more than exhibitions. At that point, perhaps the solution is to just pass on the exhibitions and replace them with real games.
NBA All-Star Game was too much TNT
The NBA All-Star Game was too much TNT. Tributes to TNT analysts, opinions by TNT analysts, TNT analysts as the game’s coaches. One hesitates to complain, given the nearly 25 years of entertainment Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley have provided in their award-winning run together. Yet when people tune into the NBA on TNT, they generally want to watch a game between the studio segments.
There is a popular sentiment that people tune in for the studio team more than for the game, but that is plainly not true. When the “Inside” crew did an alt-cast of the All-Star Game in 2022 and 2023, not only was viewership a fraction of the main game telecast (to be expected for an alt-cast), it even declined from prior simulcasts.
It is worth noting that the All-Star Game came just one week after ABC devoted an entire game — a meaningful game, at that — to honoring Hubie Brown, and was widely praised. Yet the Brown tributes did not actively delay the game, as the on-court “Inside the NBA” tribute did on Sunday.
The NBA All-Star format actually did deliver better-quality basketball on Sunday, at least at first. (A low bar to be sure, but nevertheless.) Yet the Jeanne Dielman style pacing — it seemed like a full halftime took place between what amounted to three quarters — clearly took its toll. By the end, it seemed clear the players just wanted to get out of there, and it is easy to imagine the viewers felt the same way.
All would have been better served had the TNT crew spent the night in their usual pregame and halftime roles, but for their final All-Star Game, the most acclaimed studio team in sports TV did not spend a single minute in the studio.
Draymond Green needs to improve
TNT’s Draymond Green seems to have taken all the wrong lessons from Charles Barkley’s success. Barkley is at his worst when he is handing down grand decrees from Mount Olympus — something he has done more and more as his distaste for the modern game has become an increasingly core part of his on-air persona. It is his personal charm, disarming self-deprecation, and general good humor that softens the edges of his ‘get off my lawn’ digressions. Those who interact with Green have said for years that he would be great on television, but he needs to bring other sides of his personality than the snide critic.
All-Star Game likely to wilt opposite competition
Given the competition — the United States-Canada Four Nations Face-Off on Saturday and then the combination of “SNL50” and the late-running Daytona 500 on Sunday — NBA All-Star Weekend ratings should provide fuel for those trumpeting NBA ratings decline. Ten years ago, “SNL40” took a real bite out of what should have been a stronger NBA All-Star Game audience (the game was in New York that year) and the NBA put on much less of a show this time around.
