MLB All-Star Game On Fox Sees Lowest Audience For Third Straight Year

Fox finished with a 6.8 rating and 10.9 million viewers for the NL’s 8-0 win over the AL in the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night, marking the third straight year the event has drawn a new record-low audience. The margin of victory was the third-largest ever for an ASG. The audience for the telecast had previously been reported as seeing a gain when overnight ratings were released yesterday. This year’s figure is down slightly from a 6.9 rating and 10.973 million viewers last year. The audience is also down 9.3% and 10.1%, respectively, from a 7.5 rating and 12.118 million viewers in ’10. The game delivered Fox a win for the night among all nets, and also delivered year-over-year gains among the male 18-34 demo and all key adult demos. The ASG also delivered the highest-rated night of TV since Game Five of the Heat-Thunder NBA Finals on ABC. The ASG also had 27.7 million viewers who watched all or part of the telecast, up 7% from last year, which matches the biggest increase in the metric since '98 (Austin Karp, THE DAILY). ADWEEK's Anthony Crupi wrote, "Like just about everything else on TV that is not affiliated with the NFL, All-Star Game ratings have been in decline for decades" (ADWEEK.com, 7/11). In Milwaukee, Bob Wolfley noted, "About 12% fewer viewers watched" this year's ASG in the Milwaukee market compared to last year (JSONLINE.com, 7/11).

DROPPING THE BALL: In Tampa, Tom Jones writes Fox had the "biggest dropped ball of the night" on Tuesday when the net missed Rays P Fernando Rodney "shooting his imaginary arrow into the air after setting aside the three batters he faced in the ninth inning." Fox "missed all the fun and didn't have cameras on Rodney as he did his thing." Jones: "Someone at Fox simply wasn't paying attention" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 7/12).