Ratings Roundup: NBA All-Star Game Hits Three-Year High, But All-Star Saturday Night Worst Since 2010

Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game across TNT and TBS delivered an average of 7.6 million total viewers (according to Nielsen Fast Nationals), up 6% over last year’s 7.2 million and the most-watched NBA All-Star Game since 2013 (8.0 million).  The networks’ NBA All-Star Game coverage – peaking with an average of 8.7 million total viewers from 8:45-9 p.m. ET – scored the most-viewed program of the night in primetime across all of cable television (based on metered market delivery).   The networks’ NBA All-Star Game coverage generated audience growth across all key male and adult demos. (NOTE: This year marks the first time NBA All-Star was held outside the United States, with the host city of Toronto not reflected in Nielsen analytics.)

TNT’s exclusive presentation of the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night averaged 5.6 million total viewers, down 8% from last year (6.1 million) and the smallest audience for the event since 2010 (5.4 million). The State Farm All-Star Saturday Night telecast peaked with an average of seven million total viewers from10:15-10:30 p.m. ET during the Verizon Slam Dunk, leading TNT to win the night in primetime across all of cable television.

Overall, Turner Sports’ extensive coverage of NBA All-Star 2016 delivered the two most-viewed sports programs of the week and drove significant audience consumption and engagement across all screens.

Top local market ratings for the NBA All-Star Game – San Antonio (12.4), Oklahoma City (9.9), Cleveland (9.7), San Francisco (9.4) and Memphis (8.4); top DMA ratings for the State Farm All-Star Saturday Night – Cleveland (6.7), San Francisco (6.2), New York (5.9), Oklahoma City (5.6) and San Antonio (5.6)

NBA All-Star A Hit on Social, Digital Too
On the digital front, Turner’s NBA All-Star Game content also delivered 162 million impressions across NBA on TNT and NBA TV Facebook and Twitter channels.  Social media content published across Turner’s NBA on TNT & NBA TV accounts via Facebook and Twitter(Friday-Sunday) generated more than 390 million social impressions.  Overall, the league’s social media platforms netted a record 326 million video views for NBA All-Star 2016.

Additionally, Turner’s TV Everywhere platforms garnered triple-digit growth with uniques up 295%, minutes consumed increasing 135% and live streams up 112% over 2015.  Collectively, last night’s NBA All-Star Game generated 1.2 billion minutes of video consumption across Turner’s television and TV Everywhere platforms.

Going Deep: CBS’s Super Bowl Numbers
It comes as no surprise that CBS scored weekly win, as Super Bowl 50 delivered an average audience of 111.9 million viewers, the third-largest in television history. CBS’s 7:00-11:00 PM Super Bowl Sunday package, featuring Super Bowl 50, Super Bowl 50 Post Game Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, pulled in 106.65m viewers – the second-largest nightly audience for a network since the advent of people meters. Approximately 167.02 million viewers watched all or part of Super Bowl 50, the largest all or part audience ever for any television program.

Season-to-date, CBS has moved into first place in adults 18-49 in both adults 25-54 (3.4/09) and adults 18-49 (2.6/08) while extending its viewer lead to +2.85m over second place NBC (11.78m vs. 8.93m).

SUPER BOWL 50 (S) (6:39-10:22 PM) delivered 111.86m viewers, 41.3/79 in adults 25-54, 44.0/82 in men 25-54, 37.7/80 in adults 18-49, 40.5/83 in men 18-49, 33.3/81 in adults 18-34 and 35.6/84 in men 18-34.

SUPER BOWL 50 POST-GUN (S) (10:22-10:29 PM; 43.4/67, 101.92m) — demographics:  38.9/74 in adults 25-54, 41.7/78 in men 25-54, 35.9/75 in adults 18-49, 38.9/79 in men 18-49, 32.4/77 in adults 18-34 and 34.7/80 in men 18-34.

SUPER BOWL 50 POST GAME SHOW (S) (10:29-10:54 PM) notched a 30.2 final rating and 70.0 million viewers on CBS, down 3% in ratings and viewership from last year on NBC (31.1, 72.5M) but up 7% and 6%, respectively, from 2014 on FOX (28.3, 65.8M) (SMW). Demographics:  27.1/58 in adults 25-54, 29.3/62 in men 25-54, 25.4/60 in adults 18-49, 27.7/64 in men 18-49, 23.3/63 in adults 18-34 and 25.5/67 in men 18-34.

THE LATE SHOW with STEPHEN COLBERT SUPER BOWL (S) (10:54 PM-12:02 AM) averaged 20.55m viewers, 8.2/23 in adults 25-54, 7.7/25 in adults 18-49 and 7.3/28 in adults 18-34.  THE LATE SHOW posted its largest audience with any host in late night, its best adults 25-54 and adults 18-49 ratings in late night since Feb. 25, 1994 (post-Olympics) and its best adults 18-34 late night ratings since August 30, 1993 (series premiere). However, according the a 10.3 final rating and 20.6 million viewers (SMW) were down 22% in ratings and 20% in viewership from The Blacklist on NBC last year (13.2, 25.7M), down 16% and 22%, respectively, from a half-hour New Girl on FOX in 2014 (12.4, 26.3M), and the least-watched lead-out since Alias on ABC in 2003 (17.3M).

SUPER BOWL’S GREATEST COMMERCIALS (S) posted its largest audience (11.44m) since the show debut in 2001 and was first in adults 25-54 (2.9/08) and adults 18-49 (2.0/06).

Super Bowl Tidbits
Animal Planet drew 2.2 million viewers for the first run of “Puppy Bowl XII” last Sunday from 3:00-5:02pm ET up against Super Bowl pregame coverage. By comparison, CBS drew 12.9 million viewers in the same window for “The Super Bowl Today.” Last year, the premiere of “Puppy Bowl XI” drew 2.77 million viewers. Meanwhile, Hallmark on Sunday from 12:00-3:00pm drew 756,000 viewers for “Kitten Bowl III,” down from 1.33 million viewers last year. (SportsBusiness Daily)…

…Saturday’s NFL Honors drew a 2.8 final rating and 4.4 million viewers on CBS, flat in ratings and down 5% in viewership from last year on NBC (2.8, 4.7M) and the highest for the annual awards show since it started in 2012, while viewership ranks second behind last year. (SMW)…

…On ESPN, the postgame NFL Primetime had a 1.2 and 2.2 million — down 14% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year (1.4, 2.8M) and flat and down 8%, respectively, from ’14 (1.2, 2.4M). Bucking the trend, NFL Network scored a 0.6 (+50%) and 1.2 million (+83%) for NFL Gameday Final. (SMW)…

Warriors-Thunder Comes Up Big for ESPN
The Golden State Warriors’ victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday on Feb. 6, generated an average of 3,230,000 viewers (p2+), making it the most-watched regular-season NBA game on ESPN since Oct. 31, 2014 (Cleveland-Chicago in an opening week game). The telecast peaked at 11:30 p.m. ET with 4,000,000 viewers (p2+) and propelled ESPN to win the night on Saturday across all of cable television.

Additionally, the Warriors-Thunder game generated the largest audience ever for a regular-season NBA game on WatchESPN. The game had nearly 14 million total minutes viewed (13,968,000), 314,900 unique viewers and an average minute audience of 94,400…

Odds and Ends
Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Pebble Beach Pro-Am earned a 3.4 overnight rating on CBS Sunday afternoon, up 31% from last year (2.6) and the event’s highest final round overnight since 2012 — which featured Mickelson and Tiger Woods in a final pairing (5.1). Mickelson entered this year’s final round atop the leaderboard and finished in second place. (SMW)…

…ESPN finished with 1.43 million viewers for the Feb. 4 premiere of its latest 30 for 30 documentary, The ’85 Bears, which is just below the 1.49 million viewers for Four Falls of Buffalo (which had the benefit of a lead-in from the Heisman Trophy ceremony). (SBD)…

…Tje Southampton/West Ham English Premier League match on Feb. 6 drew a 0.4 final rating and 609,000 viewers on NBC, down 56% in ratings and 51% in viewership from Swansea/Cardiff two years ago (0.9, 1.2M), as there was no comparable match last year. (SMW)…

…Fox on Saturday aired its second live Bundesliga match, with Bayern Munich taking on Bayer Leverkusen, drawing 492,000 viewers for the broadcast from 12:30-2:30pm ET, up 5% from 468,000 for Stuttgart-Hamburg last week. The audience also is the best on record for a live Bundesliga match in the U.S. (SBD)…