World Series hits ratings homer

While many out there have been predicting the death of baseball for some time, the fact is that all the sport needs are a couple of marquee teams and a competitive series to draw huge audiences.

Now, we are talking relatively huge here. Huge huge is what Hockey Night In Canada drew Saturday for the Leafs-Habs game: 2.45 million viewers. In this country, nothing tops hockey. Nothing ever will.

And imagine how big those numbers would be if the Leafs could ever ice a good team, or the Canadiens could play consistent hockey. By the way, if there are any thoughts that a bad start will cause Leaf fans to break ankles jumping off the bandwagon, Sportsnet drew the weekend's seventh-highest audience, for a Leaf game shown only in Ontario.

Relatively huge was the audience Rogers Sportsnet attracted for Sunday's World Series game: 840,000. That doesn't include all those who watched on Fox, which I'm guessing was at least another 800,000. That's not hockey huge, but it's huge.

Not so huge were the Toronto Raptors. They got off to a great start last week, drawing a record audience of 420,000 on The Score. But that fell to 240,000 Friday and only 190,000 on Sunday.

Here are the top English-Canadian sports ratings for the weekend, as supplied by BBM overnight calculations:

1. NHL: Leafs at Canadiens, Saturday, CBC: 2,453,000

2. MLB: World Series Game 4, Sunday, Sportsnet: 840,000*

3. NHL: Red Wings at Flames, Saturday, CBC: 809,000

4. NFL: Early games, Sunday, CTV: 786,000

5. NHL: Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC: 781,000

6. CFL: Roughriders at Tiger-Cats, Saturday, TSN: 775,000

7. NHL: Leafs at Sabres, Friday, Sportsnet:  692,000**

8. NFL: Falcons at Saints, Monday, TSN: 679,000

9. NFL: Vikings at Packers, Sunday, Citytv: 673,000

10. MLB: World Series Game 3, Saturday, Sportsnet: 633,000*

11. CFL: Blue Bombers at Alouettes, Sunday, TSN: 537,000

12. CFL: Stampeders at Lions, Saturday, TSN: 519,000

13. CFL: Argonauts at Eskimos, Friday, TSN: 515,000

14. NHL: Thrashers at Senators, Saturday, CBC: 499,000

15. Figure skating: Grand Prix of China, Saturday, CBC: 338,000

16. Auto racing: F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 243,000

17. NBA: Raptors at Grizzlies, Friday, TSN: 240,000

* Viewers on Fox not included

** Ontario only

Comments

[Andrew]

Formula 1 at 8am beats the Raptors in prime time!

[Mike]

The Raptors game was actually on TSN2, not TSN.

[Rick Grace]

Last place Argos double the Raptors ratings.
And of course no other NBA even shows up.
And weren't the TFC fans trying to tell hockey interest was fading in Toronto?
Leafs did almost 700,000.
And their games are shown in only parts of Ontario.
TFC didn't get that many viewers for 10 games combined.

[Peter Brown]

Will wonders never cease? Mr. Zelkovich finally admits that the number of Canadians watching a sporting event on a U.S. network (Sunday night World Series on FOX) might be approximately equal to the number watching on the Canadian rightsholder (Sportsnet). Going forward, Chris, I hope you continue to apply the same logic to Sunday Night Football on NBC/TSN and other such two-network events.

[Rick Grace]

I don't buy that for one second Peter Brown.
Bottom line is baseball never does big numbers on Canadian Tv.

You trying to theorize that 1.6 million watched the World Series in Canada, when it could barely get 100,000 viewers during the regular season on CANADIAN TV, is totally ridiculous.

[ReadJ]

re Rick Grace

The Blue Jays regularly pulled in crowds of 300,000 + plus this season. And that was pre PPM, for a terrible team, playing meaningless games.

Taking that into account, 1.6 million certainly isn't ridiculous. It's possible.

[Peter Brown]

Bottom line is that people always watch playoffs of every sport more than regular season. We know (assuming that BBM's numbers are accurate) that 840,000 watched World Series Game 4 on Sportsnet. That's not a big number? Further, the majority of Canadian sports fans (at least ones with functioning brain stems) associate FOX with the World Series, since that network has been broadcasting the World Series for the past decade. To assume that zero Canadians or a small number watched on FOX is completely ridiculous.

[Rick Grace]

Yeah whatever.
Sportsnet shows baseball in the regular season.
You can't watch it on any other TV network available on Canadian TV.
And TV ratings are in the 80-150,000 range.
Thats the national numbers.
You're trying to tell me that number jumps to 1.6 million for the World Series based on your flimsy theory?
Give it up.
If thats the case, the Stanley Cup finals did over 9 million viewers per game last year.
Because the games were also on NBC.

[Peter Brown]

Rick Grace: "And TV ratings are in the 80-150,000 range."

Actual Reality: Check the numbers culled from this very blog over the past few months. I count three instances in this list where the viewership is below 150,000. There was a clear increasing trend as the regular season ended, playoffs arrived, and World Series finally was played. This just in: In every sport, more people watch the playoffs!

(Excerpted from Chris Zelkovich's blog)

--------------
11/03/2009
2. MLB: World Series Game 4, Sunday, Sportsnet: 840,000*
10. MLB: World Series Game 3, Saturday, Sportsnet: 633,000*
* Viewers on Fox not included

10/28/2009
9. MLB: Angels at Yankees, Sunday, Sportsnet: 530,000*
* Two Sportsnet channels only, Fox viewers not calculated

10/21/2009
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
14. MLB: Angels at Yankees, Friday, Sportsnet: 304,000***
** Viewers on Fox not calculated

10/15/2009
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

10/06/2009
13. MLB, Blue Jays at Orioles, Friday, Sportsnet: 257,000
15. MLB, Blue Jays at Orioles, Saturday, Sportsnet: 236,000

09/28/2009
9. MLB: Mariners at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 398,000
13. MLB: Mariners at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 268,000

09/23/2009
10. Baseball, Blue Jays at Rays, Friday, Sportsnet: 327,000
11. Baseball, Blue Jays at Rays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 297,000

09/15/2009
6. MLB, Blue Jays at Tigers, Saturday, Sportsnet: 660,000
11. MLB, Blue Jays at Tigers, Friday, Sportsnet: 449,000**

09/09/2009
5. Baseball, Yankees at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 622,000
7. Baseball, Yankees at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 586,000
8. Baseball, Yankees at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 325,000
12. Baseball, Padres at Dodgers, Sunday, Sportsnet: 220,000
13. Baseball, Red Sox at White Sox, Saturday, Sportsnet: 207,000*
* Viewers for U.S. channels not calculated

09/01/2009
3. Baseball, Blue Jays at Red Sox, Sunday, Sportsnet: 281,000
4. Baseball, Blue Jays at Red Sox, Friday, Sportsnet: 262,000
5. Baseball, Blue Jays at Red Sox, Saturday, Sportsnet: 254,000

08/25/2009
4. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Sunday, TSN: 245,000
8. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 165,000*
11. Baseball, Red Sox at Yankees, Sunday, Sportsnet: 143,000
12. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Saturday, TSN: 141,000

08/11/2009
5. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 258,000
6. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 234,000
7. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 223,000*
10. Baseball, Red Sox at Yankees, Saturday, Sportsnet: 126,000

* Pacific and Ontario channels only

[Mike]

It's not a flimsy theory, it actually makes sense if you think about it logically.
The real question is rick, why are you so insecure about what some sports get?

[ReadJ]

To further Peter Brown's point,

aren't most of those baseball numbers pre PPM as well? So that would lead you to believe they would be even higher in the new system.

When you consider how mediocre the Blue Jays have been for the last 15 years, and the fact that there's only one Canadian team, I think the TV ratings they receive are actually extremely impressive. Imagine how well they would do if they were actually good?

Rick's bizzare agenda to insist that Canadians don't like anything but NHL and CFL is odd to say the least. Rick - just accept that people here enjoy games like MLB and NBA and move on.