Ratings Watch: Big Jump for ESPY Awards; Baseball Holds Steady

The 86th edition of the Major League Baseball Game was down vs. last year’s contest, but only slightly. This year’s game, telecast on July 14, averaged 11 million viewers for Fox. That’s a dip from last year’s 11.4 million.

The American League won this year’s face-off, 2-0.

On the flip side, ESPN’s decision this year to broadcast the annual ESPY Awards on larger broadcast sibling ABC paid off big time. The event, featuring the first public appearance by Caitlin Jenner, averaged 8 million viewers after three days of DVR and VOD use.

Last year, telecast on ESPN, the ESPYs averaged 2.3 million.

Also, ESPN’s broadcast of this year’s Home Run Derby was unchanged from last year, averaging 5.5 million viewers both in 2014 and last week in 2015.

Here is the top 25 ranker, including three days’ worth of DVR and VOD usage, for the week ending July 20, 2015.