TMC
02-25-2023, 12:41 AM
https://awfulannouncing.com/nba/to-save-the-nba-all-star-game-it-needs-to-become-easier-to-watch.html
By Velodus on 02/24/2023
The results are in for the 2023 NBA (https://awfulannouncing.com/category/nba) All-Star Game and they’re very, very bad. Sunday’s exhibition garnered a horrendous 4.6 million viewers (https://awfulannouncing.com/ratings/2023-nba-all-star-game-least-watched-ever.html), making it by far the least watched version of the league’s All-Star Game in history. The primary reason for that number appears obvious: the game was not only uncompetitive but unwatchable, with such little genuine basketball being played, even on the low standard of NBA All-Star games, that virtually everyone who came away from it agreed that the product was embarrassing – including the players and coaches who took part in it (https://thecomeback.com/nba/nba-all-star-game-jaylen-brown-glorified-layup-line.html). That would seem to suggest an obvious fix to this ratings disaster: the game just needs to be more competitive and viewers will come back to it. Simple, right? Well, no, because even if this game was close and featured a modicum of defense, the ratings were going to be meh no matter what, as evidenced by the fact that they weren’t amazing the year before when the game was actually close. The All-Star Game has a bigger problem than basketball going on, and that problem is the event itself, as a piece of television, has become way too difficult to watch.
It’s wild to say that, because the inherent appeal of All-Star games is that they are easily accessible for casual fans. All-Star games are supposed to be games where the best players in the league play with each other; by no means should that be something that comes with a learning curve. And yet the NBA, in their overzealous quest to make the inherently imperfect exhibition game more interesting, has mutated it to such an extent that it practically requires a strategy guide to follow now. The changes the league have made are producing diminishing returns and are now an active roadblock for casual fans to keep up with, and that’s before we even get to the basketball.
By Velodus on 02/24/2023
The results are in for the 2023 NBA (https://awfulannouncing.com/category/nba) All-Star Game and they’re very, very bad. Sunday’s exhibition garnered a horrendous 4.6 million viewers (https://awfulannouncing.com/ratings/2023-nba-all-star-game-least-watched-ever.html), making it by far the least watched version of the league’s All-Star Game in history. The primary reason for that number appears obvious: the game was not only uncompetitive but unwatchable, with such little genuine basketball being played, even on the low standard of NBA All-Star games, that virtually everyone who came away from it agreed that the product was embarrassing – including the players and coaches who took part in it (https://thecomeback.com/nba/nba-all-star-game-jaylen-brown-glorified-layup-line.html). That would seem to suggest an obvious fix to this ratings disaster: the game just needs to be more competitive and viewers will come back to it. Simple, right? Well, no, because even if this game was close and featured a modicum of defense, the ratings were going to be meh no matter what, as evidenced by the fact that they weren’t amazing the year before when the game was actually close. The All-Star Game has a bigger problem than basketball going on, and that problem is the event itself, as a piece of television, has become way too difficult to watch.
It’s wild to say that, because the inherent appeal of All-Star games is that they are easily accessible for casual fans. All-Star games are supposed to be games where the best players in the league play with each other; by no means should that be something that comes with a learning curve. And yet the NBA, in their overzealous quest to make the inherently imperfect exhibition game more interesting, has mutated it to such an extent that it practically requires a strategy guide to follow now. The changes the league have made are producing diminishing returns and are now an active roadblock for casual fans to keep up with, and that’s before we even get to the basketball.