NEW YORK -- Television ratings for the All-Star Game were the same as last season despite baseball's attempt to increase interest by awarding home-field advantage in the World Series to the winning league.

The American League's come-from-behind 7-6 victory Tuesday night drew a 9.5 rating and 17 share on Fox, Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday.

The All-Star Game started earlier this year and ratings were down at the start of the contest, but increased toward the end when the AL rallied. Hank Blalock hit a two-run, pinch-hit homer in the eighth inning to lift the AL.

The win gave the AL home-field advantage in the World Series, which would have gone to the NL under the previous rotating system.

There was a 12 percent increase for the last half hour of the game over the first, 9.1 to 8.1. Over the last five years, All-Star game ratings declined by an average of 23 percent from the first half hour to the last half hour.

Though the numbers appear disappointing, major league baseball tried to put a positive spin on the ratings by saying viewership increased as the game got more exciting.

"The format change, giving the winner of this year's All-Star game home-field advantage in the World Series accomplished exactly what the Commissioner (Bud Selig) intended, which was to create a more exciting and engaging game,'' Bob DuPuy, president and COO of MLB, said in a statement.

The game was the highest-rated television program so far this summer, besting the four-net prime time summer average by 90 percent (5.0/9).

It also was the highest-rated sports program since the NCAA basketball championship game in March (12.6/19).

About 30.7 million viewers watched the game, up 3 percent from a year ago (29.7 million). The increase is attributed to more households being added on a yearly basis. It is the first time in five years that the game has seen a year-to-year increase in total audience.

"In today's environment of expanding viewer options, having the All-Star Game increase its total audience for the first time in five years is a tremendous achievement, especially when you see what's happened to most recent major sports events,'' Fox Sports president Ed Goren said.

The rating is the percentage of television households in the United States watching a broadcast, and each point represents 1,055,000 homes. The share is the percentage watching a program among those households with televisions on at the time.

Last year's game, the controversial 7-7, 11-inning tie in Milwaukee, set a record for baseball's lowest-rated All-Star Game in prime time. The rating was down 14 percent from the 11.0 for the American League's 4-1 victory in 2001.