The NBA All-Star Game debuted a fresh tournament-style format this year, but it failed to spark viewer interest.
Front Office Sports reports the midseason event pulled in an average of 4.7 million viewers across TNT platforms, a 13% drop from last year, per FOS media and entertainment reporter Ryan Glasspiegel. This marks the second-lowest viewership in NBA All-Star history, just above the 2023 game’s 4.6 million.
The past three All-Star Games have all fallen below six million viewers—a threshold never crossed by any other All-Star Game in league history.
Sunday’s tournament missed three marquee names—LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Anthony Edwards. Typically, the NBA taps replacements when stars can’t play, as seen with Kyrie Irving stepping in for Anthony Davis and Trae Young filling in for Antetokounmpo. But James and Edwards bowed out at the last minute with no substitutes.
Adding to the challenge, the NBA went head-to-head with “SNL 50,” a special 50th anniversary episode of Saturday Night Live. Airing on NBC—which takes over NBA All-Star weekend rights next season—the episode raked in 14.8 million viewers, a staggering 202% jump over its average this season.
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