"Nashville's Star-Spangled Bash", a three-hour Fourth of July special hosted by Ryan Seacrest, drew an average of 5.4 million viewers on ABC, making it the most-watched primetime programme of the holiday this year. The result is notable because it is the first time in 16 years that any network has beaten NBC's Independence Day primetime line-up, traditionally led by the "Macy's 4th of July Fireworks". It also marked ABC's strongest Fourth of July primetime audience in 26 years, since 2000.

The special posted a 0.83 rating among adults aged 18-49 and peaked at 6.2 million viewers during the 10:45–11 p.m. quarter-hour. It outperformed the initial "Macy's" airing (4.9 million) by 24%, and beat rival broadcasts including Fox News' "America 250" (3.5 million), CBS' "The Great American Block Party" (1.99 million), CNN's coverage (1.3 million) and MSNOW's programming (326,000). The show formed part of a 24-hour "Disney Celebrates America" block, which took over a year to plan and reached 49.6 million viewers overall between 3 and 4 July; other highlights included "Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest", which hit a record 5 million viewers.