NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Home Run Derby proves a popular summer event

NEW YORK

Baseball’s All-Star game is fading as a midsummer television attraction, but the adjunct Home Run Derby is becoming popular in its own right.

The Nielsen company said a little more than 8 million people watched Tuesday’s All-Star Game on Fox, enough to be the second-most-popular thing on television after “America’s Got Talent” last week. The derby, where sluggers flex their muscles a day before the game, was televised on ESPN and reached 5.4 million viewers.

New York Mets rookie Pete Alonso won the Home Run Derby. The American League took the All-Star Game.

The four major broadcast networks all struggled to find viewers during a quiet July week. CBS was in the unusual position of fourth place, although summer ratings don’t mean much to the networks.

NBC won the week in prime time, averaging 3.6 million viewers. ABC had 3.2 million, Fox had 3.1 million, CBS had 3 million, ION Television had 1.5 million, Telemundo had 1.2 million, Univision had 1.1 million and the CW had 660,000.

For the week of July 8-14, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: “America’s Got Talent,” NBC, 9.81 million; MLB All-Star Game, Fox, 8.15 million; “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.35 million; “The Bachelorette,” ABC, 6.05 million; “Bring the Funny,” NBC, 5.97 million; “Home Run Derby,” ESPN, 5.41 million; “The $100,000 Pyramid,” ABC, 5.04 million; “Celebrity Family Feud,” ABC, 5.04 million; “American Ninja Warrior,” NBC, 4.5 million; “Big Brother” (Sunday), CBS, 4.2 million.