All-Star Saturday Night ratings up 7% overall, even more in key demographics

Whether it was the loaded Three-Point Shootout field or the promise of a breathtaking Dunk Contest display from Zach LaVine, NBA fans put their Valentine's Day plans aside en masse to check out NBA All-Star Saturday Night this year.

The event's substantial ratings went up seven percent from a year ago in terms of total viewers and up 10 percent in terms of U.S. households, according to a release Turner Sports issued Sunday. TNT also recorded the fourth-highest overall viewership in the event's history, with significant gains on social media and digital viewership as well.

From the release:

Last night's telecast peaked with a 4.2 U.S. HH rating and 7.8 million total viewers from 10:45-11 p.m. ET.
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The significant audience figures extended across social media platforms with State Farm All-Star Saturday Night content published across Turner's NBA on TNT and NBA TV accounts via Facebook and Twitter reaching a gross audience of 77 million fans and followers and generating 14.5 million video views. 
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Additionally, live video streams for the event across digital screens - including Turner's TVE platforms - were up 89 percent over last year.

Just as important to potential advertisers as the overall number is the significant growth in two key demographics. Viewership was up 29 percent among men aged 25-54 and up 19 percent among all viewers aged 25-54.

Turner Sports' Twitter account actually boasted earlier Sunday that the event was the second-most viewed ever based on the overnight rating, but their release later called it the fourth-most viewed installment. The highest-rated years of the event were 2009 and 2012, the years in which Nate Robinson and Jeremy Evans won the Dunk Contest, respectively.