NEW YORK – NBC's ratings for the NBA All-Star game are
headed for a record low.
The East's 111-110 win Sunday night got a 6.9 overnight rating
and an 11 share, Nielsen Media Research said Monday. That was down
17 percent from the 8.3 overnight rating and 13 share for last
year's game, which the West won 137-126.
The national rating, to be released Tuesday, figures to be even
lower. Last year's game finished with a 6.9 national rating and 12
share, down 35 percent from the previous All-Star game, which got a
10.6/17 in 1998. (There was no All-Star game in 1999 because of an
owners' lockout).
Before last year, the low national rating for an All-Star game
was 7.8 for CBS in 1979 and for NBC in 1991.
The 17 percent drop matches the decline for NBC's regular-season
NBA ratings, which are averaging a 3.0/7.
Part of NBC's coverage was opposite Tiger Woods and the Buick
Open on CBS, which got a 6.3 rating and 13 share, down from an
8.0/17 for last year's Buick, where Woods' streak of six straight
tournament wins ended. Excluding the four majors, CBS' coverage of
last year's Buick received the highest rating for a golf tournament
since 1985 Bob Hope Desert Classic.
All-Star game ratings have declined for all sports. Last
summer's baseball All-Star game got a record-low rating of 10.1/18,
down 16 percent from a 12.0/22 the previous year. The NFL Pro Bowl
on ABC got a 4.7/9 on Feb. 4, down 45 percent from an 8.6/15 in
2000. The NHL All-Star game, also played that weekend, got a 1.7/4,
down 37 percent from a 2.7/6 the previous year.
Sunday's Bud Shootout on Fox got a 4.2/10 overnight rating, up
17 percent from last year when it got a 3.6/9 on CBS.
The rating is the percentage of 102 million television
households in the United States tuned to a program. The share is
the percentage watching a broadcast among those televisions on at
the time.
Overnight ratings are based on 49 major markets.
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