Fox’s coverage of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game drew its largest audience since 2010, according to live-plus-same-day
figures released today by Nielsen.
The American League’s 5-3 victory over the National League Tuesday in Minneapolis averaged 11.34 million viewers, a 3.5 percent increase over last year’s game. That game’s average audience of 10.96 million was the second-smallest in prime time. The All-Star Game was the night’s most-watched program.
A two-hour edition of “America’s Got Talent” on NBC was second, averaging 8.53 million.
The All-Star Game had set record lows 10 of the past 18 years from 1995 through 2012. Fox Broadcasting has carried the game each year since 2001.
Viewership for most events has fallen over the past 20 years because of increased competition from Fox and cable television and such leisure time activities as surfing the Internet, playing video games and watching recorded programming.
The All-Star Game has been played in prime time each year since 1967, except for 1969, when rain forced a one-day delay of the game in Washington, D.C., and a switch to an afternoon start.
The record audience for the All-Star Game came in 1976, when an average of 36.33 million viewers watched ABC’s coverage.
