Television viewers had a ton of choices on Sunday night to choose from with the two biggest ones being the NBA All-Star Game on TNT and TBS against the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special on NBC. While one was on network television and the other one was on cable, it was assumed that it would end up being close in the ratings.
That was far from the case as Nielsen announced on Monday that the SNL special got a 14.2 rating while the All-Star Game got a 5.5 rating. The 5.5 rating was still up 12 percent from last year’s game though. Another key thing was that the SNL show wasn’t shown live on the West Coast so fans there could watch the entire basketball game before SNL.
It is going to be hard for any event on cable to beat out a network telecast especially one with so many A-list celebrities involved in it even if the All-Star Game is played at Madison Square Garden. Maybe the league needs to hope no network decides on a big show against them again next year when the game is in Toronto. It may mean even more viewers along the way.
