Viewership for Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game set a record low for the fourth time in its last five editions, but was still the most-watched all-star game in sports for the eighth consecutive year it has been played.
Fox’s coverage of the National League’s 3-2 victory over the American League at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on July 11 averaged 7.006 million viewers, the most among prime-time broadcast and cable programs airing between July 10 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released Tuesday by Nielsen.
The previous low was 7.507 million last year for the American League’s 3-2 victory at Dodger Stadium. There was no All-Star Game in 2020 because of the delayed start to the season caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Viewership figures are available dating back to 1972, except for the 1974 and 1981 games. Fox has carried each All-Star Game since 2001.
The total viewership was 7.091 million viewers, which includes the Spanish-language network Fox Deportes. The total viewership among viewers ages 18-49, the group most coveted by advertisers, was 2.17 million, a 6% increase over the 2.04 million for the 2022 game, the first increase among the group since 2017.
The audience was the largest for any prime-time program since ABC’s coverage of the concluding game of the NBA Finals on June 12 averaged 13.084 million viewers. It was the largest audience for a Fox program since Feb. 12, when its coverage of Super Bowl LVII averaged 114.3 million viewers, eight- and 14-minute postgame shows averaged 88.171 million and 58.474 million viewers and the second season premiere of the cooking competition “Next Level Chef” averaged 15.657 million.
The NFL’s Pro Bowl Games averaged a combined 6.28 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and DisneyXD on Feb. 5; the NBA All-Star Game a combined 4.59 million on TNT and TBS on Feb. 19 and the NHL All-Star Game 1.497 million Feb. 4 on ABC.
Official viewership for most forms of programming is down compared to the past primarily due to higher viewership of streaming programming, including the same programs shown on traditional television, as well as increased options for leisure time.
The record audience for the All-Star Game came in 1976, when an average of 36.33 million viewers watched ABC’s coverage in an era when there were three major broadcast networks and few other television alternatives.
The Home Run Derby was the week’s only other prime-time program to average more than 6 million viewers, averaging a combined 6.11 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2, the most for any program on ESPN this summer.
“America’s Got Talent” extended its streak of being the most-watched non-sports prime-time program for each of its six episodes, despite averaging a season-low 5.615 million viewers opposite the All-Star Game. Its previous season low was 5.963 million viewers June 13.
CBS had five of the week’s 10 most-watched programs — “60 Minutes,” three reruns of “The Price is Right at Night” and a “Young Sheldon” rerun — to finish first in the network race for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 2.57 million viewers.
Fox finished second, averaging 2.36 million viewers for its 17 hours, 33 minutes of prime-time programming. Its most-watched program outside of the All-Star Game was the professional wrestling program “WWE’s Friday Night Smackdown,” 34th for the week, averaging 2.302 million viewers.
NBC finished third among the major broadcast networks for the second consecutive week following back-to-back second-place finishes, averaging 2.29 million viewers.
ABC averaged 2.17 million viewers to finish fourth, one week after finishing second. A rerun of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” was its most- watched program, averaging 3.211 million viewers, finishing 11th.
CBS, NBC and ABC all aired 22 hours of prime-time programming.
The CW averaged 290,000 viewers for its 14 hours of programming. Its most-watched program was Sunday’s broadcast premiere of the historical drama about Jesus, “The Chosen” which averaged 459,000 viewers, tying for 163rd among broadcast programs with the July 11 8 p.m. showing of the 1959 film “The Gunfight at Dodge City” on the Westerns-oriented network Grit. Their overall ranks were not available.
The 20 most-watched prime-time programs consisted of Fox’s coverage of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game; the ESPN and ESPN2 simulcasts of the Home Run Derby and 19-minute preview show; the NBC alternative series “America’s Got Talent” and “American Ninja Warrior” and the finale of its scripted series “The Blacklist”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; Univision’s coverage of Sunday’s CONCACAF Gold Cup final between Mexico and Panama and Wednesday’s semifinal between Mexico and Jamaica; three reruns of “The Price is Right at Night” on CBS; reruns of four CBS scripted series; and four episodes of ABC alternative series.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network for the third consecutive week and fourth time in five weeks, averaging 1.449 million viewers. It was first among cable news networks for the fifth consecutive week and 125th time in 126 weeks.
ESPN was second, averaging 1.22 million viewers and MSNBC third, averaging 1.139 million.
CNN was third among cable news networks and 13th overall, averaging 541,000 viewers.
The cable prime-time top 20 consisted of the Home Run Derby and its 19- minute preview show; nine Fox News Channel weeknight political talk shows — five broadcasts of “Hannity” and two each of “The Ingraham Angle”; and “Fox News Tonight” hosted by Piers Morgan; the July 10 editions of the MSNBC political talk shows “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” which followed it; all three hourlong segments of the USA Network professional wrestling program “WWE Raw”; the 8 p.m. Sunday edition of the western “1883: A Yellowstone Origin Story” on Paramount Network and six minutes of interstitial programming leading into the 9:13 p.m. episode; the Discovery competition series “Naked and Afraid: Last One Standing”; and History’s UFO investigation series, “The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.”
Netflix’s most-watched title was “King The Land,” with viewers spending 51.8 million hours watching the Korean drama.
“The Out-Laws” was Netflix’s most-watched film for the second consecutive week, with viewers spending 46.3 million hours watching the romantic action comedy the first full week it was available, 46.1% more than the 31.7 million hours watched the previous week when it was available for three days.
The most-watched Spanish-language program was Univision’s coverage of Sunday’s Mexico-Panama CONCACAF Gold Cup final game from SoFi Stadium which averaged 4.321 million viewers, fourth for the week.
Univision was the most-watched Spanish-language network for the 49th consecutive week and 187th time in 189 weeks, averaging 1.66 million viewers. Telemundo was second, averaging 720,000 viewers, followed by UniMas (240,000) and Estrella TV (90,000).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched nightly newscast for the 241st time in 242 weeks, averaging 7.372 million viewers. “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 5.782 million viewers. The “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell” was third, averaging 4.284 million viewers.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were Fox’s coverage of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game; the ESPN-ESPN2 simulcast of the Home Run Derby; NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”; CBS’ “60 Minutes”; Univision’s coverage of the Mexico-Panama CONCACAF Gold Cup final; the ESPN-ESPN2 simulcast of the 19-minute Home Run Derby preview show; the 8 p.m. July 12 and 8 p.m. July 10 reruns of CBS’ “The Price is Right at Night”; CBS’ “Young Sheldon”; and the 9 p.m. July 12 rerun of “The Price is Right at Night.”
