Tencent Sports, February 13th is getting closer and closer to the 2018 Los Angeles All-Star Game, if the NFL Super Bowl that just ended not long ago is the United States Spring Festival Gala, then the NBA All-Star Game is the Lantern Festival Gala, covering three days of games is a big guarantee for the NBA's ratings throughout the season. Looking back on history, the peak of All-Star ratings was concentrated in the 90s of the last century, and after entering the 21st century, especially after Michael Jordan's retirement, the ratings declined seriously. The 2018 All-Star Game has been reformed and added a lot of new highlights, and this year's ratings may be greatly improved.

1988 All-Star

Before the 90s: from trough to up

The NBA All-Star Game began in 1951 and was broadcast live across the United States for the first time on television in 1959. However, NBC TV only broadcast the second half at the time, when the Western All-Stars defeated the Eastern All-Stars 123-108, with Elgin Baylor and Bob Pettit sharing the All-Star MVP.

There is no data on the ratings of the All-Star Game at that time, which was not available until the 90s of the last century. However, judging from the attitude of TV broadcasters towards the NBA at the time, before entering the 80s of the last century, the NBA All-Star ratings were not high.

On the one hand, there was racial discrimination in the league at that time, and the game was full of violence, and the price paid for fights and malicious fouls in the game was very small. On the other hand, most of the players in the league at that time had a history of drug abuse, and although there was no shortage of stars, the viewing of the game was limited, and the NBA was not the first choice for fans. By the end of the '70s, game attendance was declining and ratings were shaky.

Including the early 80s, how unpopular was the NBA on TV at that time? In the 1980 playoffs, which featured two very attractive divisional finals (Celtics vs. 76ers and Lakers vs. SuperSonics), CBS only aired three of them, three of them were recorded on delay, and the other four were ignored entirely. The Lakers played the 76ers in the finals, and the two sides gathered big stars such as Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Julius Irving, but CBS still chose to delay the broadcast of Game 6 of the Finals. 1981 was even more excessive, with CBS airing only nine of the divisional finals, six of which were delayed. Four of the six Finals were recorded in delay, resulting in the lowest ratings in the history of the Finals that season.

Even the division finals and finals are treated like this, not to mention the All-Star Game. However, the arrival of stars such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and later Michael Jordan gradually changed the image of the NBA, and the NBA's ratings gradually increased, and by 1990, the NBA signed a four-year, $275 million broadcast contract with TNT, and All-Star ratings reached its peak.

Jordan controls the All-Star ratings

90s: Peak

With stars such as Johnson, Bird, and Jordan entering their peak, the NBA ushered in the peak of ratings in the 90s of the last century. In 1990, the Eastern Conference All-Stars defeated the Western All-Stars 130-113, and Johnson's team lost the game, but he won the MVP with 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. The game featured super point guards like Johnson, Isaiah Thomas at Stockton, and super point guards like Michael Jordan, Drexler, Reggie Miller, plus McHale, Parish, Bird, Barkley, Ewing, Olajuwon, etc., with a rating of 9.5 and 13.2 million viewers.

In the 1991 All-Star Game, due to factors such as Bird and Thomas withdrawing due to injury, and Olajuwon not being selected at all due to injuries, the All-Star ratings fell to 7.8, and the number of viewers was 10.61 million. But in the next two seasons, the star-studded 1992 and 1993 All-Star Game ratings reached new highs, reaching 12.8 viewership and 18.83 million viewers in 1992, compared to 14.3 and 22.91 million in 1993, respectively, and the 1993 All-Star Game was the highest since 1990 to 2016.

In 1994, Jordan went to play baseball, the league lost its signature star, and in the same year, Mourning and Barkley did not participate in the All-Star because of injuries, and the ratings of the All-Star Game in 1994 plummeted to 9.1, and the number of viewers decreased by nearly 10 million compared with 1993, and Jordan's influence can be seen. Including in 1995, Jordan did not participate in the All-Star Game when he returned at the end of the season, and the All-Star ratings were only 15.78 million.

But after Jordan returned to the All-Star Game in 1996, the All-Star ratings returned to the peak, from 1996 to 1998, the ratings of the three All-Stars were 11.7, 11.2 and 10.6, and the number of viewers was 17.46 million, 16.9 million and 16.93 million respectively.

Whether the new format can boost viewership

21st century: Ratings plummet

In 1999, the All-Star Game was not held because of the shutdown, and Jordan's second retirement took away a large number of fans, and after entering the 21st century, the ratings of the 2000 All-Star Game were only 6.9, and the number of viewers plummeted to 10.52 million, which was comparable to the impact of Jordan's first retirement. In 2001, the ratings fell to 5.1, and the number of viewers was only 7.76 million, the first time since 1990 that it did not exceed 10 million.

Thanks to Jordan, his comeback with the Wizards once again saved the All-Star ratings, which boosted the 2002 All-Star Game rating to 8.2 and 13.1 million views. It's just a little surprising that in Jordan's last All-Star Game in 2003, the ratings dropped to 6.6, and the number of viewers was 10.83 million times.

After that, the league has completely entered the post-Jordan era, and the league has not lacked superstars over the years, such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Shaquille O'Neal, etc., including Chinese star Yao Ming, these stars are the guarantee of ratings. But from 2003 to 2008, All-Star ratings and viewership declined year by year. Especially in the 2008 All-Star Game, Maddie, Carter, Garnett were injured or not selected, and Kobe Bryant only played less than 3 minutes due to injury, the ratings plummeted to 3.8, and the number of viewers was only 6.33 million, all of which were the lowest since 1990.

The ratings of the 2009 All-Star Game improved, but in 2010 injuries ruined the game, Iverson, Kobe, and Chris Paul all did not play due to injuries, such as Billups, Randolph, Carman, Gerard Wallace, David Lee, and Horford, all of whom were practical stars who did not have much appeal. As a result, the rating was only 3.8 and the number of viewers was 6.85 million.

Fortunately, since 2011, Kobe Bryant has taken a group of stars to work with a serious attitude, plus Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and other new stars have grabbed power, and the All-Star ratings have recovered, once increased to 5.2 in 2011, with a rating of 9.09 million. It has also been stable in the following years, with viewership remaining around 7 million to 8 million. In particular, it is worth mentioning the 2016 All-Star Game, Kobe Bryant's All-Star career curtain call, with a rating of 4.3 and a rating of 7.61 million.

The 2017 All-Star Game was a much-complained session, the intensity of the game was very low, the two sides did not move seriously at all, the game was full of three-point shooting, the game was extremely low to watch, and many stars, including Paul, asked the league to reform the All-Star. However, this year's All-Star ratings were relatively good, with 7.8 million viewers, the highest since 2013. But compared to the peak, this data can only be said to be average.

In recent years, the all-star ratings are not as good as in the 90s of the last century, due to many reasons, on the one hand, the rise of online live broadcasting, diverting part of the viewership, people's viewing habits have changed; On the other hand, as Wade said before, the All-Star Game itself is not competitive enough, lacks that kind of real atmosphere, and the main game lacks innovation, and many fans are already aesthetically fatigued.

Fortunately, the league decided to reform the 2018 All-Star Game, and this year's All-Star Game, the East and West District ticket kings served as captains, and selected the players they wanted to partner with from the player pool. Will the 2018 All-Star Game ratings be red? Can the number of viewers exceed 10 million? We'll see.

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