The 2010 MLB All-Star Game hit an all-time record low in ratings Tuesday night — and even drew fewer viewers than the Pro Bowl.
FOX drew a 7.5/13 final rating and 12.118 million viewers for the MLB All-Star Game Tuesday night, down 16% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (8.9, 14.593 mil), down 19% and 17%, respectively, from the first nine innings in 2008 (9.3, 14.540 mil), and down 11% and 3%, respectively, from 2007 (8.4, 12.530 mil).
This marks the lowest rated MLB All-Star Game ever (no other game had even dropped below 8.0), and the least-viewed since at least 1981. The previous lows came for the 2005 game, which drew an 8.1 rating and 12.330 million viewers.
The 12.118 million viewers for the All-Star Game is slightly less than half the audience 19 years ago (24.670 mil for the 1991 game).
Tuesday’s game drew a 3.8 rating in the key adults 18-49 demographic, down 19% from last year (4.7), down 16% from 2008 (4.5) and down 7% from 2007 (4.1).
The All-Star Game did not do much better than Tuesday’s edition of America’s Got Talent on NBC (6.8, 11.631 mil, 3.3 A18-49), and finished behind a special episode of Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel among adults 18-49 (3.9 to 3.8). Still, the game helped FOX to its best night in primetime since the season finale of American Idol in May.
To put the numbers in perspective, the All-Star Game drew a lower rating and fewer viewers than every game of the 2010 NBA Finals, every game of the 2010 Final Four, four of the five 2010 BCS bowls, the 2010 Daytona 500, the final round of The Masters and two World Cup matches on ABC (Ghana/USA and Spain/Netherlands) — just to name a few.
This is notable because the All-Star Game typically draws numbers on par with or better than several of those events — for example, last year’s game outdrew four of the five games of that year’s NBA Finals, two of the three Final Four games and the final round of The Masters.
Tuesday’s game also drew fewer viewers than the Pro Bowl, which drew 12.297 million viewers on cable network ESPN in January. The All-Star Game still drew a higher rating (7.5 to 7.1).
Additionally, the MLB All-Star Game finished comfortably ahead of the NBA All-Star Game, which drew a 3.8 rating (record low) and 6.846 million viewers on TNT in February.
In host-city Los Angeles, the game drew an 8.6 rating — well below the 37.0 last year’s game drew in host-city St. Louis. Due to the disparity in size between the two markets, Los Angeles still contributed more TV homes to the All-Star Game that St. Louis did last year.
St. Louis was the top market for this year’s game, with a 20.5.
(TV By The Numbers 1, 2, pifeedback.com)
