All-Star Game hits a grand slam

The most-watched Major League Baseball All-Star Game since 2002 enabled Fox Broadcasting to reign as the week’s most-watched TV network, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox drew 14.54 million viewers for its coverage of the American League’s 4-3, 15-inning victory over the National League July 15. The audience was the annual game’s largest since 2002, when a 7-7 tie drew 14.65 million viewers.

Baseball was also responsible for cable television’s most-watched program of the week, as ESPN’s coverage of the Home Run Derby July 14 drew 9.12 million viewers, the most in the 16 years it has been telecast. It was also the largest audience for any cable program in 2008, topping the previous high of 8.32 million for CNN’s coverage of the Jan. 31 Democratic presidential debate from the Kodak Theatre. The home-run- hitting contest would have ranked fifth among the week’s programs on the five major broadcast networks.

With the All-Star Game ranking first and a 42-minute pregame show finishing third, Fox was the week’s most-watched network, averaging 7.11 million viewers for its prime-time programming between July 14 and Sunday. CBS, which had finished first in six of the previous seven weeks, was second.

The ratings prowess of “High School Musical” failed to materialize for Sunday’s premiere of the ABC competition series, “High School Musical: Get in the Picture,” which finished third in its 8-9 p.m. slot with 3.97 million viewers. But ABC did draw 25% more viewers between ages 2 and 11 than it did in the same time period a year ago.

USA Network was the most-watched cable network for the seventh consecutive week, averaging 2.98 million viewers for its prime-time programming.

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Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (July 14-20) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 286 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 “Baseball All-Star Game” FOX 14.54 2 America’s Got Talent (Tue.) NBC 12.79 3 “Baseball All-Star Pre-Game” FOX 10.37 4 Criminal Minds CBS 9.26 5 So You Think You Can Dance (Wed.) FOX 9.01 *--*

*--* 6 CSI CBS 8.92 7 Wipeout ABC 8.65 8 CSI: NY CBS 8.60 9 So You Think You Can Dance (Thu.) FOX 8.40 10 Two and a Half Men CBS 8.39 *--*

*--* 11 60 Minutes CBS 8.30 12 Celebrity Family Feud NBC 7.82 13 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 7.77 14 NCIS CBS 7.76 15 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 7.69 *--*

*--* 16 CSI: Miami CBS 7.67 17 House FOX 7.43 18 Flashpoint (Fri.) CBS 7.11 19 Greatest American Dog CBS 6.97 Primetime: Family Secrets ABC 6.97 *--*

*--* 21 Numb3rs CBS 6.44 Primetime: Crime ABC 6.44 23 The Big Bang Theory (9:30 p.m.) CBS 6.42 24 Bones FOX 6.33 25 Dateline: NBC (Mon.) NBC 6.32 *--*

*--* 26 Big Brother 10 (Tue.) CBS 6.10 27 Law & Order: SVU NBC 6.05 28 Hopkins ABC 6.01 29 Nashville Star NBC 5.93 Baby Borrowers (9 p.m.) NBC 5.93 *--*

*--* 31 Big Brother 10 (Wed.) CBS 5.76 32 Dateline: NBC (Fri.) NBC 5.75 33 Big Brother 10 (Sun.) CBS 5.72 34 I Survived a Japanese Game Show ABC 5.70 35 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 5.51 *--*

*--* 36 48 Hours Mystery CBS 5.50 Ghost Whisperer CBS 5.50 38 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.49 39 America’s Got Talent (Sun.) NBC 5.35 40 Without a Trace CBS 5.33 *--*

*--* 41 Swingtown CBS 5.32 42 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 5.28 43 “Premios Juventud 08” (Thu.) UNI 5.20 44 How I Met Your Mother CBS 5.14 45 The Big Bang Theory (8 p.m.) CBS 5.10 *--*

*--* 46 Cold Case CBS 5.08 47 American Gladiators NBC 5.00 48 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 4.93 49 America’s Most Wanted FOX 4.91 “Bachelor: Where Are They Now?” ABC 4.91 *--*

*--* 51 America’s Funniest Home Videos ABC 4.82 52 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 4.72 53 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Wed.) UNI 4.66 54 20/20 ABC 4.64 55 Celebrity Circus NBC 4.55 *--*

*--* 56 Fuego en la Sangre (Tue.) UNI 4.50 57 Last Comic Standing 6 NBC 4.49 58 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Mon.) UNI 4.43 59 Family Guy FOX 4.41 60 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.34 *--*

*--* 61 Flashpoint (Sun.) CBS 4.33 62 Fuego en la Sangre (Mon.) UNI 4.25 63 Fuego en la Sangre (Wed.) UNI 4.16 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Tue.) UNI 4.16 65 Law & Order NBC 4.07 *--*

*--* 66 Most Outrageous Moments (Fri., 8 p.m.) NBC 4.06 67 Baby Borrowers (8 p.m.) NBC 4.02 68 Supernanny ABC 4.00 69 High School Musical: Get in the Picture ABC 3.97 70 American Dad FOX 3.95 *--*

*--* 71 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 3.93 72 Most Outrageous Moments (Fri., 8:30 p.m.) NBC 3.91 73 Al Diablo con los Guapos (Fri.) UNI 3.88 74 Wife Swap ABC 3.84 75 The Mole (10 p.m.) ABC 3.60 *--*

*--* 76 The Simpsons FOX 3.57 Fuego en la Sangre (Fri.) UNI 3.57 78 King of the Hill FOX 3.46 79 “Noche de Estrellas” UNI 3.36 80 Grey’s Anatomy ABC 3.35 *--*

*--* 81 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.29 82 Duel ABC 3.28 83 Aqui y Ahora UNI 3.26 84 Ugly Betty ABC 3.22 *--*

Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date FOX 7.11 9.95

CBS 6.41 9.41

NBC 5.51 7.37

ABC 4.48 8.20

UNI 3.38 3.50

CW 1.66 2.30 *--*