ESPN built the Home Run Derby into appointment television over 32 years of All-Star weeks.
Netflix killed it in one night for a $50 million check.
Ron DeSantis saw what everyone else did – and said what needed saying.
Lowest Viewership Since 2003
Monday night's Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park drew 5.3 million viewers on Netflix – the smallest audience since ESPN pulled 5.2 million back in 2003.
Last year on ESPN, the Derby drew 5.7 million.
The year before, 5.5 million.
In 2017, ESPN pulled 8.2 million.
Netflix took a declining number and drove it off a cliff.
DeSantis summed up the reaction on X.
"That's a shame because it was one of the best derbies of all-time," the Florida governor wrote.
He's right on both counts.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2077844213874491812?s=20
Jordan Walker of the St. Louis Cardinals crushed 31 home runs across three rounds – including shots measuring over 450 feet – and became the first Cardinal in history to win the Derby.
He defeated hometown favorite Kyle Schwarber in a dramatic final round, rattling off six consecutive home runs to clinch the $1 million prize.
It was the kind of finish that used to own SportsCenter for a week.
Instead, millions of baseball fans never saw it happen.
Rob Manfred Locked His Own Fans Behind a Paywall
Here's what MLB's front office forgot – the fans who have watched the Derby for decades still have cable, still flip to ESPN during All-Star week, and still expect to find baseball on American television.
Manfred told those fans to subscribe to a streaming service or miss out.
Fans on social media called the move "un-American."
They weren't wrong.
Netflix's own numbers give away what MLB doesn't want to admit – their viewers skewed young, which is corporate speak for losing the older audience entirely.
The fans who made the Derby a family tradition every July?
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2077824197653397609?s=20
Shut out.
Netflix paid a reported $50 million per year for the Derby, an Opening Night game, and a midseason Field of Dreams contest as part of a three-year deal signed in late 2025.
The Opening Night broadcast in March – Yankees versus Giants – pulled just 3 million viewers and drew immediate backlash for a scorebug so small fans said they couldn't read it, a botched dugout interview during a live review, and nonstop promotions for Netflix shows that had nothing to do with baseball.
Netflix Treats Baseball Like Content and Fans Can Tell
This is not a company that understands sports broadcasting.
The Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul fight in late 2024 drew 60 million households but was buried by buffering and streaming failures so severe that Netflix got hit with a $50 million lawsuit.
The Home Run Derby broadcast featured Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson, and Jimmy Tatro as celebrity commentators – because apparently Netflix thought fans tuned in for comedy bits, not baseball.
Even veteran broadcaster Dan Patrick publicly criticized the approach during Monday's event.
Netflix made Elle Duncan – who left ESPN to become the face of the streamer's sports division – the centerpiece of its coverage.
Duncan responded to critics by essentially telling fans they didn't understand what Netflix was trying to do.
That attitude tells you everything.
Netflix doesn't see the Home Run Derby as a baseball tradition.
They see it as content – another tile on your home screen between a true crime documentary and a Korean reality show.
The production matched that mindset.
The broadcast started 25 minutes late.
https://twitter.com/GibbsVault/status/2076860071208694075?s=20
Camera work during Walker's final-round comeback was so poor that viewers couldn't tell whether his winning shot cleared the fence until the crowd reacted.
Netflix even flashed a graphic declaring Walker the winner during the semifinals – a full round before he actually won.
Trump Saw This Coming
President Trump warned about exactly this when he criticized the NFL's streaming deals earlier this year.
"You got people that love football. They're great people. They don't make enough money to go and pay this," Trump told Sharyl Attkisson on Full Measure. "It's tough, and they could be killing the golden goose."
He was talking about football, but the principle is identical.
Every major sport that has chased Silicon Valley money by locking fans behind paywalls has watched its audience shrink.
MLB just handed one of its crown jewels to a company that thinks the solution to declining ratings is celebrity comedians and fewer cameras on the actual baseball.
DeSantis called it a shame.
That's generous.
It's a betrayal of the fans who built baseball – sacrificed on the altar of a streaming deal that couldn't even match ESPN's already declining numbers.
Commissioner Manfred wanted to "grow the game."
He just shrank it to a two-decade low.
Sources:
- OutKick/Fox News, "Home Run Derby Ratings Crash on Netflix, Sets 20-Plus-Year Low," July 16, 2026.
- Sports Business Journal, via EssentiallySports, "Home Run Derby Viewership Data 2017–2026," July 17, 2026.
- Forbes, "Netflix Takes Another Swing at MLB With Home Run Derby Broadcast," July 13, 2026.
- Washington Times, "Netflix's MLB Debut Draws Fan Backlash Over Scorebug, Missed Moments and Heavy Self-Promotion," March 26, 2026.
- Yahoo Sports, "NFL Receives Major Warning Over Shift From Traditional Broadcasters to Netflix," May 27, 2026.
