Major League Baseball’s latest brush with novelty didn’t entirely pay off in the TV ratings column, as Kyle Schwarber’s clutch showing in the first-ever All-Star Game “swing-off” failed to prevent Fox from delivering the second-smallest audience for the Midsummer Classic on the books.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Fox’s presentation of the 95th MLB All-Star Game averaged 7.19 million viewers Tuesday night, down 3% versus the year-ago 7.44 million and marking the smallest TV turnout for the exhibition this side of 2022’s record low (7.01 million).
The last time the Midsummer Classic broke seven figures was in 2015, when Fox’s broadcast of the AL’s 6-3 win served up 10.9 million viewers. The network notched its highest ASG deliveries at Safeco Field in 2001, when 16 million fans tuned in. For the record, the all-time biggest turnout for the exhibition was secured by ABC in 1976, when a staggering 36.3 million viewers watched Pete Rose and George Foster lay into their AL counterparts, 7-1.
For what it’s worth, that Bicentennial game took all of two hours and 12 minutes, soup to nuts. At an overstuffed five hours and 13 minutes, last night’s outing was considerably more drawn out.
As is generally the case, this year’s MLB showcase eclipsed similar efforts by the NFL, NBA and WNBA. In February, the NFL’s latest stab at replacing its Pro Bowl Game averaged a record low 4.69 million viewers on ESPN/ABC/Disney XD, coming up just shy of the NBA’s much-maligned exercise two weeks later (4.72 million on TNT/TBS/truTV). For its part, ABC’s presentation of the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game served up an all-time high last summer with 3.44 million viewers.
After falling into a 6-0 hole, the American League triggered the new knot-busting format with a late rally that included a four-run barrage in the top of the seventh inning. Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman officially sent the game to the impromptu Home Run Derby stage when he coaxed the Cardinals’ Brendan Donovan into a check-swing groundout in the bottom of the ninth.
Thus began baseball’s first foray into a hockey-style shootout, as three sluggers from each league were given three chances at going yard. Schwarber launched his full complement of slow-pitch tosses into the seats, securing a rare victory for the National League. (Since the 2002 Miller Park fiasco, the AL has cranked out a 17-5 record.)
For those scoring at home, the final result looked something like this: NL 6(4–3), AL 6.
Unfortunately, the timing of the new tie-breaker’s debut was less than optimal, with the swing-off getting underway just before 11:40 p.m. ET, or well past the bedtimes of many older baseball fans back east. (If you’ve ever railed against sports’ “East Coast Bias,” it’s worth noting that 48% of all U.S. TV households are situated within the Eastern time zone. Location, location, location.)
While the tiebreaker procedures are spelled out for all to see on pages 83-84 of the 2022-26 Collective Bargaining Agreement, most of Tuesday night’s participants and observers alike seemed unaware of what was in store after Chapman recorded the final out of the ninth. After the game, the Marlins’ Kyle Stowers told reporters that he thought NL skipper Dave Roberts was messing with him when he warned the outfielder to get ready to swing a little bonus lumber.
As a perk, the six players who were tapped for the ASG mini-Derby were awarded an additional $10,000, bumping their take-home pay 40% from the standard $25,000 rate.
Along with the new-look tiebreaker procedure, MLB also used last night’s scrimmage as a national test run for an automatic balls-and-strikes (ABS) challenge system that was in use during spring training. According to the league’s bean counters, the experiments during Cactus/Grapefruit League play did not drag down baseball’s now-zippy pace of play, adding just 13.8 seconds per challenge to the spring games’ total running times.
