All-Star Game Sees Bump To 9.3M Viewers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Baseball’s breezier All-Star game scored a turn-around in viewership from last year’s record low.

The game drew 9.3 million viewers to rank as the last week’s No. 2 program, Nielsen said Tuesday. That compares to 8.7 million for 2016’s game.

HBO fielded the other big standout: The season seven premiere of “Game of Thrones” drew 10.1 million viewers, zooming past the previous bests in the 8-million range for other recent GOT season openers.

The American League 2-1 victory at Miami was the first exhibition game in 15 years, with no World Series home-field advantage on the line. That gave Fox’s broadcast room to play around, including interviews with players on the field.

The game also boasted hefty star power of teams from TV’s biggest markets, with the New York Yankees’ five players including rookie sensation Aaron Judge.

Others winners in last week’s ratings included “America’s Got Talent” and “World of Dance.” Both shows aired on NBC, which Nielsen says was the most-watched broadcast network in primetime for the week of July 10.

NBC averaged 4.8 million viewers, followed by CBS with 4.3 million. ABC had 3.6 million, Fox had 3.2 million, Univision had 1.7 million, ION Television had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1.2 million and the CW had 910,000.

The most popular cable network was Fox News Channel, which averaged 2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 1.7 million. ESPN had 1.6 million, and HGTV and USA were neck-in-neck with, respectively, 1.465 million and 1.459 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.5 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.3 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 5.8 million.

The Top 20

Primetime viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for July 10-16. Listings include the week’s ranking and viewership.

1. “America’s Got Talent” (Tuesday), NBC, 12.6 million.

2. “Game of Thrones, HBO, 10.1 million.

3. MLB All-Star Game, Fox, 9.3 million.

4. “Home Run Derby,” ESPN, 8.2 million

5. “America’s Got Talent (Thursday), NBC, 7.1 million.

6. “World of Dance,” NBC, 7.08 million.

7. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.55 million.

8. “Big Brother,” CBS (Wednesday), 6.5 million.

9. “Home Run Derby” (preshow), ESPN, 6.23 million

10. “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 6.2 million.

11. “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS, 6.15 million.

12. “Big Brother” (Thursday), CBS, 6.1 million.

13. “Little Big Shots: Forever Young,” NBC, 6.08 million.

14. “The Wall,” NBC, 6.05 million.

15. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.02 million.

16. “Big Brother” (Sunday), NBC, 5.9 million.

17. “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 5.66 million.

18. “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 5.62 million.

19. ESPY Awards, ABC, 5.3 million.

20. “NCIS: New Orleans, CBS, 5.2 million.