> Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game averaged a combined 2.2 rating and 4.59 million viewers across TNT and TBS, making it easily the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the game. The previous lows were a 3.1 (2021 and 2022) and around six million viewers (2021).
All-Star Saturday Night and the Rising Stars game on Friday were also down to new lows
Good_NewsEveryone
The only way to fix this is to put Jose Alvarado in the all star game imo
wolfgang187
Why would anyone want to watch the best players assemble to not play hard?
No_Mammoth_4945
This is the first year I haven’t even watched the 3pt contest or dunk contest. Last years dunk contest sucked so bad so I just couldn’t be bothered to devote time to it this year lol
DynamixRo
The fewer people got to watch that, the better.
Obvious_Parsley3238
who would watch the ASG after we already got an entire finals series of tatum chucking
RulersBack
That was probably the worst one I can remember but I think it was more about stars being out than the game being fundamentally broken. Giannis and the top guys always make it a point to go relatively hard and the others follow suit. If its bad again next year then yea somethings gotta change
xShockmaster
That’s good. If the viewership was low then there’s better odds of them actually trying to improve it.
Tearz_in_rain
I might be wrong about this, but was the ASG not strictly on TNT/TBS?
I tried finding it on network television and no go.
Back in the day, the ASG would be on NBC (or whichever network has the NBA contract).
It was free to watch.
When you put it on a cable station, fewer people will have access to it.
I may wrong about that because I’m up in Canada and have limited viewing options because of licensing rights, but I wanted to watch it and couldn’t without paying, and I’m not paying for that.
notatowel420
They get paid millions to play a game but can’t even be bothered to show up on Sunday night
NewUserDGAF
Yea started watching TLOU as soon as it started to air lol.
lets_talk_basketball
You mean to tell me people don’t wanna watch guys not try and just jack up threes and let each other score all game? Never would’ve guessed. David stern rolling over in his grave seeing Adam silver ruin his league
jorgelongo2
I just dont know how you incentivize these guys to play hard? No one tries on defense but guys like Doncic or Jokic dont even pretend to care lol and the others just chuck 20 3s
chimpaman
I’d rather watch the All-Stars go bowling than play basketball like a kid pretending he’s Steph Curry in his backyard.
Suspicious_Message
Good to know. This was my first time watching the all-star game and I thought there might be something wrong with me.
ObiOneKenobae
Problems with the events aside, the commentators spend all their time trying to make you feel bad for tuning in. It sucks every bit of fun out.
Hate to say it, but I don’t think TNT should get all star weekend. They’ve kept proving in recent years that they can’t handle the responsibility.
On_The_Contrary_24
I’m a casual fan. I TRIED to watch this game. After about five minutes I felt pretty disgusted with what I was watching and changed the channel to the news. That’s how bad it was.
RandomDoctor
Outside of Maclung insane dunks, there wasn’t much else memorable about the weekend. I couldn’t sit through the half time show either.
OldKingRob
NBA does themselves no favors by signing TV deals that require people to have a cable sub or signing up for a streaming equivalent like Sling or Fubo. Local? Shit can be a nightmare.
Super Bowl the biggest event in US and Fox had a free 4K stream.
NBA seems to want as few people to watch their product as possible
a87lwww
It was so so bad
zacksharpe
I was bored watching the highlights. Can’t imagine how boring it was watching the full 2+ hour game.
OhiOstas
Deservedly so. That shit was trash. I watched a couple of possessions in the 2nd quarter and called it a night. To even call that a pickup game is a disgrace to pickup games
SummerGoal
No Steph, no KD, no Giannis actually playing
Fatdaddyschwenk
Rising stars games were infinitely more entertaining. Those guys actually played basketball.
stran
Like assembling the avengers to do house chores…
Tho I would watch that….
the-kza
it was nfl pro bowl bad.
TheNotoriousJTS
An hour of pregame bullshit, a karl malone tribute, a stupid scoring system, and no basketball (except for my two beautiful sons playing 1v1 for a couple minutes).
hidden_corners
Go back to East vs West and the winning conference gets 4 home games in the NBA finals and the loser gets 3.
Akumetsu33
Growing up, two of the biggest reasons I tuned in all-star was MJ and Kobe because I knew they’d raise the game level way high. Of course both still took it easy in the all star games and didn’t always take it seriously but I always knew they would lock in more near the end of the game to finish it up.
They knew when it was time to go to work, when it was time for fun. They wanted to get people’s money worth to see them perform at a high level.
That might just be me getting old. Now get off my lawn!
delightfuldinosaur
Personally I do not like the teams picked by captains thing. Its not a deal breaker, but playing for “Team LeBron” isn’t as cool as playing for your conference IMO.
CrumpyLongBottom
Because it’s boring watching the best players in the league not take the game seriously. It’s like 48 minutes of shoot around.
Character-Pattern505
Lowest performing player is banned from the league.
The ASG is really a stupid idea anyway. No one is going to risk injury for that nonsense. Happens in every sport that runs something like this.
NFL doing a flag football pro bowl was genius though.
Naiwf
NBA All star weekend is must miss TV for the most part. Not surprised.
Yosonimbored
It’s hard to compete with The Last of Us
Lethargic_Smartass
Well, the whole thing is just an abuse of the fans.
A yearly collection of the greatest talent that the world has to offer in this professional sport and to not even attempt to play a real game is just pathetic.
And the fools talk about adding a mid-season type of event as well.
The All-Star even is detrimental to the brand overall! It needs to be canceled.
JimmerAteMyPasta
Give us the 1v1 tournament
toxichart
When players don’t give a fuck about the game, fans shouldn’t give a fuck either. The only decent allstar game left is in the MLB. NHL and NFL both had near unwatchable games as well.
TomasRoncero
elimination chamber > dunk contest lol
Jungle_dweller
In addition to the other reasons people bring up, there’s also an absurd amount of bloat in the all star game. The game was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM EST, but it took a good 45 minutes or more to introduce everyone and pick teams, then there’s apparently a broadcast on multiple channels and some really long halftime shows, and Draymond going around asking people what it means to be an all star. There’s just not a lot of basketball being played and the players are already phoning it in. It’s like the producers think people want to *see* the best basketball players and watch a celebration of basketball more than actually watch basketball.
Big_Katsura
It’s a terrible product and the NBA should be embarrassed. The minute or so I watched was as entertaining as pregame layup lines.
kraftpunkk
If the players don’t care, why should we?
Sam101294
Everyone wants to be an all Star, claiming it’s such disrespect when they’re not selected, but nobody actually wants to play in the all star games. They just want the accolades and it’s really so sad
42 Comments
> Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game averaged a combined 2.2 rating and 4.59 million viewers across TNT and TBS, making it easily the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the game. The previous lows were a 3.1 (2021 and 2022) and around six million viewers (2021).
All-Star Saturday Night and the Rising Stars game on Friday were also down to new lows
The only way to fix this is to put Jose Alvarado in the all star game imo
Why would anyone want to watch the best players assemble to not play hard?
This is the first year I haven’t even watched the 3pt contest or dunk contest. Last years dunk contest sucked so bad so I just couldn’t be bothered to devote time to it this year lol
The fewer people got to watch that, the better.
who would watch the ASG after we already got an entire finals series of tatum chucking
That was probably the worst one I can remember but I think it was more about stars being out than the game being fundamentally broken. Giannis and the top guys always make it a point to go relatively hard and the others follow suit. If its bad again next year then yea somethings gotta change
That’s good. If the viewership was low then there’s better odds of them actually trying to improve it.
I might be wrong about this, but was the ASG not strictly on TNT/TBS?
I tried finding it on network television and no go.
Back in the day, the ASG would be on NBC (or whichever network has the NBA contract).
It was free to watch.
When you put it on a cable station, fewer people will have access to it.
I may wrong about that because I’m up in Canada and have limited viewing options because of licensing rights, but I wanted to watch it and couldn’t without paying, and I’m not paying for that.
They get paid millions to play a game but can’t even be bothered to show up on Sunday night
Yea started watching TLOU as soon as it started to air lol.
You mean to tell me people don’t wanna watch guys not try and just jack up threes and let each other score all game? Never would’ve guessed. David stern rolling over in his grave seeing Adam silver ruin his league
I just dont know how you incentivize these guys to play hard? No one tries on defense but guys like Doncic or Jokic dont even pretend to care lol and the others just chuck 20 3s
I’d rather watch the All-Stars go bowling than play basketball like a kid pretending he’s Steph Curry in his backyard.
Good to know. This was my first time watching the all-star game and I thought there might be something wrong with me.
Problems with the events aside, the commentators spend all their time trying to make you feel bad for tuning in. It sucks every bit of fun out.
Hate to say it, but I don’t think TNT should get all star weekend. They’ve kept proving in recent years that they can’t handle the responsibility.
I’m a casual fan. I TRIED to watch this game. After about five minutes I felt pretty disgusted with what I was watching and changed the channel to the news. That’s how bad it was.
Outside of Maclung insane dunks, there wasn’t much else memorable about the weekend. I couldn’t sit through the half time show either.
NBA does themselves no favors by signing TV deals that require people to have a cable sub or signing up for a streaming equivalent like Sling or Fubo. Local? Shit can be a nightmare.
Super Bowl the biggest event in US and Fox had a free 4K stream.
NBA seems to want as few people to watch their product as possible
It was so so bad
I was bored watching the highlights. Can’t imagine how boring it was watching the full 2+ hour game.
Deservedly so. That shit was trash. I watched a couple of possessions in the 2nd quarter and called it a night. To even call that a pickup game is a disgrace to pickup games
No Steph, no KD, no Giannis actually playing
Rising stars games were infinitely more entertaining. Those guys actually played basketball.
Like assembling the avengers to do house chores…
Tho I would watch that….
it was nfl pro bowl bad.
An hour of pregame bullshit, a karl malone tribute, a stupid scoring system, and no basketball (except for my two beautiful sons playing 1v1 for a couple minutes).
Go back to East vs West and the winning conference gets 4 home games in the NBA finals and the loser gets 3.
Growing up, two of the biggest reasons I tuned in all-star was MJ and Kobe because I knew they’d raise the game level way high. Of course both still took it easy in the all star games and didn’t always take it seriously but I always knew they would lock in more near the end of the game to finish it up.
They knew when it was time to go to work, when it was time for fun. They wanted to get people’s money worth to see them perform at a high level.
That might just be me getting old. Now get off my lawn!
Personally I do not like the teams picked by captains thing. Its not a deal breaker, but playing for “Team LeBron” isn’t as cool as playing for your conference IMO.
Because it’s boring watching the best players in the league not take the game seriously. It’s like 48 minutes of shoot around.
Lowest performing player is banned from the league.
The ASG is really a stupid idea anyway. No one is going to risk injury for that nonsense. Happens in every sport that runs something like this.
NFL doing a flag football pro bowl was genius though.
NBA All star weekend is must miss TV for the most part. Not surprised.
It’s hard to compete with The Last of Us
Well, the whole thing is just an abuse of the fans.
A yearly collection of the greatest talent that the world has to offer in this professional sport and to not even attempt to play a real game is just pathetic.
And the fools talk about adding a mid-season type of event as well.
The All-Star even is detrimental to the brand overall! It needs to be canceled.
Give us the 1v1 tournament
When players don’t give a fuck about the game, fans shouldn’t give a fuck either. The only decent allstar game left is in the MLB. NHL and NFL both had near unwatchable games as well.
elimination chamber > dunk contest lol
In addition to the other reasons people bring up, there’s also an absurd amount of bloat in the all star game. The game was scheduled to start at 8:00 PM EST, but it took a good 45 minutes or more to introduce everyone and pick teams, then there’s apparently a broadcast on multiple channels and some really long halftime shows, and Draymond going around asking people what it means to be an all star. There’s just not a lot of basketball being played and the players are already phoning it in. It’s like the producers think people want to *see* the best basketball players and watch a celebration of basketball more than actually watch basketball.
It’s a terrible product and the NBA should be embarrassed. The minute or so I watched was as entertaining as pregame layup lines.
If the players don’t care, why should we?
Everyone wants to be an all Star, claiming it’s such disrespect when they’re not selected, but nobody actually wants to play in the all star games. They just want the accolades and it’s really so sad