NBA All-Star Game Suffers Massive Viewership Decline; Could Major Shakeup Fix it?

What can the NBA do to improve the All-Star Game?

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The 2023 All-Star Game has come and gone but NBA may not want to take a look at the ratings. 

The NBA's finest hit the court at Vivint Arena on Feb. 19 with Team LeBron James and Team Giannis Antetokounmpo squaring off with charitable implications on the line. Antetokounmpo's squad ultimately came out on top, but the NBA took a major hit ratings-wise. 

Although there were plenty of stars to see and the offense was off the charts, the All-Star Game registered its lowest-ever ratings on record with a 2.2 rating and 4.59 million viewers between TNT and TBS, according to Jon Lewis with Sports Media Watch. 

"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," Lewis said. "The previous lows were a 3.1 (2021 and 2022) and around six million viewers (2021).

Ratings and total viewership both fell by 27% or more from last season's exhibition contest. The NBA All-Star Game's viewership dropped so much to the point that it had fewer viewers than the NFL Pro Bowl, which had 6.28 million. 

How could the NBA fix this issue? Well, the NFL addressed an issue it had by completely reemerging its Pro Bowl structure. While that may be more difficult for the NBA to do, there are ways they could do so. One idea that has been floated around is completely scrapping the All-Star Game and replacing it with a March Madness-style tournament of the NBA's best playing one-on-one. 

Another idea that has been thrown around is incentivizing the game for the players with the winning team being paid $1 million each. Either of these two options likely would increase the competitiveness of the contest, but there's no way to be sure if it would actually lead to bigger viewing numbers. 

The NBA All-Star Game's ratings were low, but it still performed well in comparison to live cable television at the same time. Streaming likely is one of the biggest factors in the decline of the All-Star Game's viewership and that won't change any time soon. 

There's no way to know for sure right now how to get the viewership back, but it sounds like the NBA will have to do something at least. 

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