Hockey tops the ratings and it's still October

There's an old saying in the Canadian television world that goes something like this: Hockey is Canada's most popular sport. Everything else is tied for second.

While that may be a bit of an overstatement, the weekend TV ratings pretty much back that up. Not even a month into the NHL season, hockey ratings are almost doubling the next highest. Imagine what they'll be doing when the games start to actually mean something.

Saturday's NHL tripleheader on CBC averaged 2.3 million viewers, 1.1 million more than the runner-up.

The tie for second place may be down to two, though. The CFL took second place as an overtime Lions-Roughriders game topped the 1 million mark. CTV's NFL offerings on Sunday were close behind at 899,000 while the Rogers NFL Sunday combination (City and Sportsnet) pulled in 792,000.

As always, here are the top weekend audiences for sports broadcasts on English-language networks, as supplied by BBM overnight ratings:

1. NHL, Leafs at Canucks/Rangers at Habs/Bruins at Sens, Saturday, CBC: 2,306,000

2. CFL: Lions at Roughriders, Saturday, TSN: 1,202,000

3. NHL: Oilers at Flames, Saturday, CBC: 1,119,000

4. NFL: Early games, Sunday, CTV: 899,000

5. CFL: Eskimos at Stampeders, Friday, TSN: 714,000

6. CFL: Ticats at Argonauts, Friday, TSN: 706,000

7. CFL: Alouettes at Blue Bombers, Saturday, TSN: 637,000

8. NFL: Eagles at Redkins, Monday, TSN: 592,000

9. MLB: Angels at Yankees, Sunday, Sportsnet: 530,000*

10. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC: 507,000

11. NFL: Late games, Sunday, Citytv: 492,000

12. Curling: Grand Slam quarterfinal, Saturday, CBC: 483,000

13. Curling: Grand Slam final, Sunday, CBC: 441,000

14. NFL: Cardinals at Giants, Sunday, TSN: 411,000**

15. NFL: Late games, Sunday, Sportsnet: 303,000

* Two Sportsnet channels only, Fox viewers not calculated

** NBC audience not calculated

Good weekend for CFL, F1 and TFC

While hockey and football, as usual, are at the top of the ratings heap, the past weekend was a pretty good one for Formula One racing and Toronto FC. The Brazilian Grand Prix drew  365,000 viewers to TSN on Sunday, which shows what a difference starting in the afternoon instead of dawn can do for audiences.

Playing a do-or-die game also helped Toronto FC, whose victory over Real Salt Lake attracted 229,000 to CBC on Saturday afternoon.

The new ratings system continues to look good on the CFL, which again dominated the non-hockey ratings.

 Here are the top ratings on English-Canadian television for last weekend, according to BBM overnight figures.

1. NHL: Rangers at Leafs/Senators at Canadiens, Saturday, CBC: 1,718,000

2. NHL: Canucks at Wild, Saturday, CBC: 986,000

3. CFL: Roughriders at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 930,000

4. CFL: Lions at Blue Bombers, Sunday, TSN: 893,000

5. CFL: Eskimos at Argonauts, Friday, TSN: 693,000

6. NFL: Early games, Sunday, CTV: 680,000

7. NFL: Bears at Falcons, Sunday, TSN: 586,000*

8. CFL: Tiger- Cats at Alouettes, Sunday, TSN: 522,000

9. NFL: Late games, Sunday, City: 426,000

10. MLB: Dodgers at Phillies, Sunday, Sportsnet; 413,000

11. MLB: Angels at Yankees, Saturday, Sportsnet: 403,000**

12. MLB: Phillies at Dodgers, Friday, Sportsnet: 378,000

13. Auto racing, F1 Brazilian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 365,000

14. MLB: Angels at Yankees, Friday, Sportsnet: 304,000***

15. Auto racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup, Saturday, TSN: 303,000

16. NFL: Late games, Sunday, Sportsnet: 243,000

17. Soccer:  Salt Lake at Toronto FC, Saturday, CBC: 229.000

* Viewers on NBC not calculated

** Viewers on Fox not calculated

*** Two Sportsnet channels only

The McCown-Sportsnet saga, part II

Though all is apparently smiles and chuckles on both sides of the Rogers Sportsnet-Bob McCown battle, this isn't the first time the two have crossed microphones.

Back when Sportsnet originally planned to put McCown's FAN 590 show on television, things were delayed when McCown brought it to the network's attention that a clause in his contract called for a few more dollars if the show were ever put on TV. How McCown's agent, Gord Kirke, ever thought of that one is a mystery, but things eventually were ironed out.

Eventually, they were ironed out this time, too.

Sportsnet's vice-president of content, David Akande, says there were no red faces (embarrassed or angry, as I wrote Friday) over McCown's new deal being reached about the time Sportsnet was yanking the show.

``As I told the staff, negotiations were going on and anything can happen," Akande said, adding that Sportsnet was fully prepared to reinstate the show once a deal was done.

Baseball playoffs score high for Sportsnet

I received an email last week from a reader commenting on my recent Toronto Star column regarding Rogers Sportsnet's decision to keep a baseball playoff game from Ontario viewers. ``Nobody cares about baseball," the writer told me. ``Who cares?"

Well, judging by the weekend ratings, a lot of people still care about the grand old game. Or is it the national pastime? Whatever it is, it's alive an well with three Sportsnet games scoring more than 500,000 viewers even though not all of the games were on all four channels.

Also doing well is the CFL, which again finished second only to hockey. Not doing so well, sadly, is Toronto FC. The team's key game against San Jose on Saturday drew a paltry 145,000 viewers to CBC -- 31,000 fewer than the number who watched an under-20 World Cup quarterfinal between Germany and Brazil the same day.

Here are the top-rated shows on English-Canadian television, as supplied by BBM overnight ratings:

1. NHL: Penguins at Leafs, Saturday, CBC: 1,686,000

2. NHL: Canadiens at Oilers, Saturday, CBC: 1,004,000

3. CFL: Blue Bombers at Tiger-Cats, Monday, TSN: 949,000

4. CFL: Lions at Eskimos, Friday, TSN: 824,000

5. NFL: Early games, Sunday, CTV: 762,000

6. NFL: Jets at Dolphins, Monday, TSN: 759,000

7. CFL: Stampeders at Alouettes, Monday, TSN: 722,000

8. CFL: Argonauts at Roughriders, Saturday, TSN: 698,000

9. MLB: Twins at Yankees, Friday, Sportsnet: 638,000*

10. MLB: Yankees at Twins, Sunday, Sportsnet: 620,500

11. MLB: Red Sox at Angels, Friday, Sportsnet: 587,000

12. NFL: Colts at Titans, Sunday, TSN: 502,000**

13. Golf: Presidents Cup final round, Sunday, TSN: 476,000**

14. NHL Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC: 447,000

15. NFL: Patriots at Broncos, Sunday, City: 385,000

* Sportsnet East, Ontario and West only

** Viewers for NBC not calculated.

Big night for Hockey Night

As expected, the new ratings system has been very kind to hockey. 

CBC drew an average audience of 2.5 million for its season opener last Thursday and Saturday was no disappointment. Its regional coverage of the Leafs at Capitals, Habs at Sabres and Senators at Rangers averaged 1.74 million. These are audiences CBC hopes for during the playoffs.

Of course, all ratings have risen and everybody's setting records. But there are some interesting revelations.

Let's take the Buffalo Bills, a team promoters and those who worship at the altar of the NFL would have us believe is wildly popular in Ontario. But Sunday's Bills-Dolphins game was pretty far down the list and behind all four CFL games.

Even when ratings for the NFL package shown simultaneously on City and Sportsnet are combined (558,000), they beat only CFL game. 

Here are the weekend ratings for English-Canadian television, according to BBM overnight figures.

1. NHL, Early games, Saturday, CBC: 1,740,000

2. NHL, Flames at Oilers, Saturday, CBC: 1,153,000

3. CFL, Roughriders at Lions, Friday, TSN: 923,000

4. NFL, Early games, Sunday, CTV: 736,000

5. CFL, Tiger-Cats at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 697,000

6. CFL, Eskimos at Blue Bombers, Friday, TSN: 684,000

7. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game show, Saturday, CBC: 628,000

8. NHL, Red Wings vs. Blues, Friday, TSN: 472,000

9. CFL, Alouettes at Argonauts, Saturday, TSN: 446,000

10. NFL, Chargers at Steelers, Sunday, TSN: 422,000*

11. Auto racing, NASCAR Sprint Cup, Sunday, TSN: 401,000**

12. NFL, Bills at Dolphins, Sunday, City: 389,000

13. MLB, Blue Jays at Orioles, Friday, Sportsnet: 257,000

14. NHL, Panthers vs. Blackhawks, Friday, TSN: 256,000

15. MLB, Blue Jays at Orioles, Saturday, Sportsnet: 236,000

* NBC viewers not calculated

** ABC viewers not calculated

Good summer for the FAN. Too bad about the cutbacks ...

Things in the radio business have been just about as bleak as they've been in the newspaper world. Okay, maybe not quite that bleak, but the cash cow that was radio has fallen on lean times.

Even the deep pockets of sugar daddy Rogers Communications haven't been enough to shield the FAN 590 from tough times. The station even cut back the number of trips Leafs reporter Howard Berger will take this season, a few months after asking Day Oner Norm Rumack to close the door from the outside.

So the latest radio ratings have to lift spirits at the all-sports radio station, though Berger's frequent flyer account will suffer. The FAN's overall audience share was up from 4.1 to 4.8 in its adult male target group over laat summer, according to the summer ratings. 

While the summer ratings, compiled during July and August, are considered the least important of the year, there were some big winners.

Bob McCown's Prime Time Sports saw its audience share jump from 7.1 last summer to 7.8. That stopped a bit of audience erosion in the last year. While 640 Toronto's Bill Watters Show saw its ratings jump from 1.9 to 2.2, it's no longer gaining ground on McCown.

That'w what Watters did last spring when its ratings went up and McCown's dropped a bit.

It was a good summer for Mike Hogan and Mike Toth, whose Bullpen ratings jumped from 1.6 to 4.2. The Game Plan's ratings also rose, from 3.3 to 3.6.

Amazingly, evenings jumped to a 9.2, making it tops among adult males. What's so amazing is that weekday evenings are almost exclusively the property of the Toronto Blue Jays and we all know what kind of year they're having.

The only downer for the FAN were the ratings for the Landry and Stellick morning show, which fell from a 4.5 share to 4.0.

By the way, these are the last radio ratings that will rely exclusively on people filling out diaries, and they probably mean as much as any of the other ratings issued under that system. That is to say, who knows?

When the people meters come in this fall, we should get a more accurate picture of who's listening to whom.

Call of the year, if not the best since Nostradamus

This is not one of those Internet alerts like the one about the couple who accidentally smuggled home a Mexican sewer rat, or the Canadian tourist whose kidney was stolen in Buffalo. This is real, and really amazing.

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