ESPN finished with a 4.1 U.S. rating and 6.7 million viewers for the MLB Home Run Derby on Monday night. That rating is flat compared to the '12 figure, but viewership was down 3%. Despite the viewership drop, the telecast ranked as ESPN's most-viewed sporting event since the '13 BCS National Championship (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said of ratings for the Derby, "We ruled the night" (CLEVELAND.com, 7/16). Meanwhile, MLB said yesterday that the Home Run Derby generated 868,878 social media comments, marking an 8% increase from last year's Derby. Not surprisingly, the social media activity peaked near the completion of Derby winner Yoenis Cespedes' 17-homer first round, with about 10,000 tweets per minute (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).
| MLB HOME RUN DERBY AUDIENCE TREND ON ESPN |
| YEAR | U.S. RATING | VIEWERS (000) |
| '13 | 4.1 | 6,651 |
| '12 | 4.1 | 6,882 |
| '11 | 4.0 | 6,686 |
| '10 | 4.0 | 6,418 |
| '09 | 5.1 | 8,250 |
| '08 | 5.5 | 9,116 |
| '07 | 4.3 | 6,778 |
| '06 | 4.4 | 6,787 |
| '05 | 4.1 | 6,330 |
| '04 | 4.7 | 7,713 |
| | | |
LANGUAGE ARTS: CBSSPORTS.com's Gregg Doyel wrote of ESPN conducting a bilingual interview on Monday after the Home Run Derby with A's LF Yoenis Cespedes, "My goodness, did people get angry." It was "Ugly American culture at its worst, this insistence that others in this country Speak Like We Do." ESPN's Pedro Gomez "conducted this two-minute interview with Cespedes," and it was "beautifully done." Doyel: "Sensitive, subtle, helpful. Fast. Finished" (
CBSSPORTS.com, 7/16).
CHANGE NEEDED: In Baltimore, Peter Schmuck wrote the Home Run Derby "hasn't done it for me in quite some time," but it "must still be quite popular if so many fans were willing to pay hundreds of dollars" to attend. Schmuck: "There's got to be a way to tighten it up and get viewers more invested in the outcome. ... How many times do you really want to hear Chris Berman swoon over a 380-foot fly ball?" It is a "sad fact that the Home Run Derby had more starpower and appeal when it was populated with a bunch of hitters with forearms like Popeye and we all were in blissful denial about the reason for that" (BALTIMORESUN.com, 7/16).
