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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Record-Low All-Star Game Ratings Keep Fox In The Cellar

Associated Press

The midsummer television doldrums extended to baseball last week, with Fox’s telecast of the All-Star game scoring its lowest ratings ever.

Tuesday’s game in Cleveland was the second most-watched program last week, behind a “Seinfeld” rerun.

But it didn’t help pull Fox out of fourth place in another weekly contest won by NBC, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday.

The All-Star game had an 11.8 rating and 21 audience share. As recently as the early 1980s, ratings for the annual midsummer classic were double that.

“My glass is half full,” said Ed Goren, executive producer of Fox Sports. “We have the No. 2 prime-time show of the week. It was the highest-rated all-star game of any sport this year. If that’s true, what does that mean for the other sports?”

Continuing the summer pattern, seven newsmagazines were rated among Nielsen’s top 14 shows for the week, led by ABC’s “20/20.”

That even included CBS’s “48 Hours,” which finished in 12th place for the week Thursday night despite competing against “ER.” ABC’s effort to try out Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” in prime time during that time slot finished a disappointing 79th.

For the week, NBC had a 7.1 rating and 14 share. CBS had a 6.9 rating and 13 share, followed by ABC’s 5.9 rating and 11 share and Fox’s 5.7 rating and 11 share.

Here are prime-time ratings as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for July 7-13. Listings include the week’s ranking, with rating for the week, season-to-date rankings in parentheses, and total homes.

An “X” in parentheses denotes one-time-only presentation. A rating measures the percentage of the nation’s 97.0 million TV homes. Each ratings point represents 970,000 households.

1. (1) “Seinfeld,” NBC, 12.4, 12.0 million homes.

2. (X) “Fox MLB All-Star Game,” Fox, 11.8, 11.4 million homes.

2. (12) “20/20,” ABC, 11.8, 11.4 million homes.

4. (1) “ER,” NBC, 11.6, 11.2 million homes.

5. (13) “PrimeTime Live,” ABC, 11.1, 10.8 million homes.

6. (4) “Suddenly Susan,” NBC, 10.2, 9.9 million homes.

7. (15) “Dateline NBC,” (Tuesday) NBC, 10.1, 9.8 million homes.

8. (21) “Dateline NBC,” (Monday) NBC, 10.0, 9.7 million homes.

8. (9) “Touched by an Angel,” CBS, 10.0, 9.7 million homes.

10. (10) “60 Minutes,” CBS, 9.9, 9.6 million homes.

11. (5) “Friends,” NBC, 9.2, 8.9 million homes.

12. “48 Hours,” CBS, 8.9, 8.6 million homes.

12. (8) “Home Improvement,” ABC, 8.9, 8.6 million homes.

14. “Dateline NBC,” (Friday) NBC, 8.8, 8.5 million homes.

15. “Men Behaving Badly,” NBC, 8.3, 8.0 million homes.

16. (X) “Snapper MLB All Star Pre-Game,” Fox, 7.9, 7.7 million homes.

17. “CBS Tuesday Movie: A Stranger To Love,” CBS, 7.6, 7.4 million homes.

18. (14) “CBS Sunday Movie: The Godfather 3, Part 1 of 2,” CBS, 7.5, 7.3 million homes.

18. (4) “Suddenly Susan,” (Monday) NBC, 7.5, 7.3 million homes.

20. (20) “Drew Carey Show,” ABC, 7.4, 7.2 million homes.

20. “Unsolved Mysteries,” NBC, 7.4, 7.2 million homes.