All-Star game narrowly sets record-low TV rating

The National League's 8-0 victory set a record low rating for baseball's All-Star game, just 4 hundredths of a point below last year's figure.

The blowout over the American League on Tuesday night, which had the third-highest victory margin in All-Star history, received a 6.8 rating and 12 share on Fox and was seen by an average audience of 10.9 million, the network said Wednesday.

The NL's 5-1 victory last year drew a 6.9/12 and was seen by an average audience of 11 million.

Still, the total audience that watched any portion of the game was 27.7 million, up 7 percent from last year, and the initial rating at the start of the game was 6.5/12, up 7 percent from last season and the best for the All-Star game since 2009.

St. Louis had the highest rating (20.5/33) for the sixth straight season, up 15 percent from last year. Kansas City was next at 18.7 and 31, up 188 percent and nearly double the 10.6/19 for host Phoenix last year.

Fox won the night and drew its highest prime-time rating since the season finale of ''American Idol.''

The ratings are the percentage of all households with televisions tuned into a program, and the share is the percentage watching a show among those homes with TVs in use at the time.