The MLB Home Run Derby scored baseball’s top cable audience — including postseason — in nearly four years.
The 2015 Home Run Derby drew a 4.2 final rating and 7.1 million viewers on ESPN Monday night, up 24% in ratings and 32% in viewership from last year’s rain-delayed coverage (3.4, 5.4M), and up 2% and 7%, respectively, from 2013 (4.1, 6.7M). The telecast peaked with a 4.5 rating from 9:30-10 PM ET and 7.5 million viewers from 10-10:30 PM.
Reds OF Todd Frazier‘s win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Home Run Derby since 2009 (5.1, 8.3M), and is fifth in the latter measure since 1999 — trailing only 2009, 2008 (9.1M), 2004 (7.7M) and 2002 (7.7M). Overall, it scored the largest MLB audience on cable since Game 5 of the 2011 Cardinals/Phillies NLDS on TBS (8.4M).
Beyond baseball, it earned the top rating and viewership for any sporting event on cable since Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Finals on ESPN (5.6, 8.9M).
Monday’s telecast drew a 2.5 rating among adults 18-49, up 19% from last year (2.1) but down a tick from 2013 (2.6). According to information obtained by ShowBuzz Daily, viewership skewed much older than in previous years with a median age of 47 — up from 44 last year and 42 in 2013.
The Home Run Derby easily topped the comparable NBA All-Star Saturday Night, which drew a 3.4 and 6.1 million on TNT in February. The NHL SuperSkills Competition was a blip on the radar by comparison, with a 0.5 and 895,000 on NBCSN.
(Mon. numbers from ESPN Media Zone, ShowBuzz Daily)
