Baseball whiffs as All-Star Game TV ratings set record low

NEW YORK — Baseball’s All-Star Game had a record low television rating.

The American League’s 4-3 victory over the National League on Tuesday night in Cleveland had a 5.0 rating and 11 share on Fox, according to Nielsen Media Research. The game was seen by an average of 5.93 million households and 8.14 million viewers.

That is down from the previous record low rating of 5.2 and 8.69 million viewers for the AL’s 8-6, 10-inning victory last year.

The game averaged 8,302,000 viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox streaming services, peaking at 8,592,000 viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. EDT. It was the most-watched Fox prime-time telecast since February and the network’s most-watched Tuesday night since the World Series opener between Boston and the Los Angeles Dodgers last October.

The Home Run Derby drew a combined 6.2 million viewers and a 4.54 rating in metered markets on ESPN and ESPN2 on Monday night, up from 5.97 million viewers and a 4.39 rating last year.

The rating is the percentage of television households tuned to a broadcast and the share is the percentage tuned to a telecast among those households with televisions on at the time.