After all of the negative stories surrounding the lack of big names in the Slam Dunk Contest and how horrible the NBA has been with its packed schedule post-lockout, fans tuned in to watch the festivities in Orlando. Not even the Academy Awards could keep hoops fans from seeing Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in action at the Amway Center. In an exciting conclusion to Sunday’s coverage, the West All-Stars, led by Oklahoma City Thunder forward and All-Star MVP Kevin Durant edged the East, 152-149. During one of the busiest and most-watched nights on television, TNT’s exclusive coverage of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game delivered an overall 5.4 US household rating in metered market overnights. The metered market rating is the second highest-rated overnight since 2005 (5.9 metered market rating). Houston Rockets All-Star Chase Budinger talks gaming in this exclusive video interview below.

  
TNT’s Friday night telecast of the BBVA Rising Stars Challenge was the most-watched telecast in the event’s history, delivering a 1.7 US rating and more than 2.7 million viewers. TNT’s All-Star Saturday Night presented by State Farm delivered the third most-watched telecast in the 27-year history of TNT’s All-Star coverage with 6,237,000 total viewers. 

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.