TV Ratings: Home Run Derby Scores During Slow Week

Baseball’s Home Run Derby is becoming popular in its own right.

The Nielsen company says a little more than 8 million people watched Tuesday’s All-Star game on Fox, enough to be the second-most popular thing on television after “America’s Got Talent” last week. The derby where sluggers flex their muscles a day before the game was televised on ESPN and reached 5.4 million viewers.

The Associated Press reports the four major broadcast networks all struggled to find viewers during a quiet July week. CBS was in the unusual position of fourth place, although summer ratings don’t mean much to the networks.

NBC won the week in prime time, averaging 3.6 million viewers. ABC had 3.2 million, Fox had 3.1 million, CBS had 3 million, ION Television had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1.2 million, Univision had 1.1 million and the CW had 660,000.

Fox News Channel was the week’s most popular cable network, averaging 2.28 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.54 million, ESPN had 1.47 million, HGTV had 1.27 million and TLC had 1.15 million.

⏩ Cable TV Prime-Time:

1. Fox News Channel (2,330,000)
2. MSNBC (1,577,000)
3. ESPN (1,461,000)
4. HGTV (1,282,000)
5. TLC (1,141,000)
6. USA (1,038,000)
7. Investigation Discovery (942,000)
8. A&E (930,000)
9. TBS (929,000)
10. History (856,000)

⏩ Basic cable ranker: Week of... on Scribd

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8 million viewers, NBC’s Nightly News” had 6.9 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.2 million.

⏩ Broadcast Prime-time viewership numbers:

1. “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 9.81 million.
2. MLB All-Star Game, Fox, 8.15 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.35 million.
4. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.05 million.
5. “Bring the Funny,” NBC, 5.97 million.
6. “Home Run Derby,” ESPN, 5.41 million.
7. “The $100,000 Pyramid,” ABC, 5.044 million.
8. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 5.041 million.
9. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 4.5 million.
10. “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 4.2 million.

11. “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 4.16 million.
12. “To Tell the Truth,” ABC, 4.058 million.
13. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 4.055 million.
14. “Holey Moley,” ABC, 3.96 million.
15. “ESPY Awards,” ABC, 3.87 million.
16. “The Code,” CBS, 3.85 million.
17. “Bull,” CBS, 3.84 million.
18. “Dateline NBC,” NBC, 3.76 million.
19. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 3.739 million.
20. “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, 3.738 million.