TV Ratings : All-Star Game Scores Despite Threat of Strike

Despite the prospect of a players strike hovering like a storm cloud, baseball’s annual All-Star Game last week delivered an almost identical rating to last year’s contest, figures from the A.C. Nielsen Co. showed Tuesday.

Last week’s game on NBC, which the National League won, 8-7, in 10 innings on a double by Moises Alou, got a 15.7 rating--meaning it was seen in nearly 14.8 million homes. The 1993 game on CBS got a 15.6.

Both were an improvement over the 14.9 in 1992, but they still rank among the lowest-rated All-Star games of the past three decades. The highest rated was the 1970 game, which got a 28.5.

And whatever baseball fever there was for the All-Star Game quickly dissipated. ABC’s first regular-game coverage on Saturday under the much-touted “Baseball Network” banner attracted only 15% of the available audience and ranked 58th among the week’s 87 prime-time network programs.

The All-Star telecast gave NBC a boost to a first-place tie with CBS, among the networks.

Southland Ratings

Here are A.C. Nielsen’s Top 10 prime-time programs in the Los Angeles area during the same week. Each rating point equals 50,064 households.

Station Rating Program 1. Home Improvement KABC 18.7 2. The Simpsons KTTV 14.7 3. Grace Under Fire KABC 14.7 4. Roseanne KABC 13.9 5. 60 Minutes KCBS 13.6 Coach KABC 12.8 7. Seinfeld KNBC 12.0 Frasier KNBC 12.0 9. Married ... With Children KTTV 11.4 “In a Child’s Name” KCBS 11.4

Weekly Averages CBS: 9.3 NBC: 9.3 ABC: 8.8 FOX: 5.6