MLB ALL-STAR GAME EARNS SECOND LOWEST RATING IN GAME HISTORY

          Fox Sports' broadcast of MLB's All-Star Game on Monday
     earned a 12.0/22 national Nielsen rating, down 9% from last
     year's 13.3/25 on NBC.  Total viewership of the game was
     recorded at 36.88 million viewers.  Fox reported that its
     pregame show earned a 10.5/20 Nielsen rating, giving it the
     highest rated All-Star pregame show since the '94 pregame
     show on NBC earned an 11.5/23 (Fox).  In Boston, Howard
     Manly reports that Cleveland "led the nation" with a 27.8/45
     All-Star rating, while Boston was second with a 25.1/43. 
     Manly writes that "those numbers are all good, but
     nationally the game took another hit. ... It was the second-
     lowest rating for the game in the last 30 years."  ESPN's
     rebroadcast of the Women's World Cup Final "earned slightly
     lower ratings than what [ESPN's] programming received last
     year ... against the All-Star Game" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/15).