TNT Earns 6.2 Overnight For NBA All-Star Game, Up 35% From Last Season

TNT averaged a 6.2 overnight Nielsen rating for last night's NBA All-Star Game, up 35% from a 4.6 overnight last year. The net earned a 4.4 fast-national rating and 8.1 million viewers for coverage of NBA All-Star Saturday Night presented by State Farm, marking the most-watched All-Star Saturday Night in the event's 26-year history. This year's All-Star Saturday Night figures are up 13% and 23%, respectively, from a 3.9 rating and 6.554 million viewers last year. The telecast peaked from 10:30-11:00pm ET, with nearly 10.4 million viewers tuning in for Clippers F Blake Griffin's winning dunk in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. The '11 All-Star Saturday Night ranks as the most-watched NBA telecast on cable for the '10-11 season. Meanwhile, the final round of the Slam Dunk contest drew 4.5 million votes via NBA mobile, compared to 1.2 million votes for last year's final (THE DAILY).

HOOP SCOOP: In St. Petersburg, Tom Jones writes of NBA All-Star Saturday Night, "Give TNT high marks for an entertaining broadcast of what had become a rather stale made-for-television event" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 2/21).  In L.A., Tom Hoffarth writes TNT reporter Craig Sager's interview with Justin Bieber during the second quarter of last night's All-Star Game "sadly" was the "highlight of the telecast" up until that point. Sager is "in his element" in an event like the All-Star Game. Hoffarth writes, "So vapid, and yet so compelling, Sager's conversation went on so long TNT had to go to a split screen to show the game action that'd otherwise be missed." Until Lakers G Kobe Bryant, who earned the All-Star Game MVP award, "gave L.A. viewers something of a rooting interest, TNT's investment in a kajillion minutes of coverage over the weekend ... seemed even more wasteful than usual" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 2/21).