Peter Puck and hockey talk pull in the viewers

It's pretty much a given that Canadian sports fans would watch hockey games if they were scheduled at 3 a.m., were shot with a cellphone camera and called by a stutterer with a lisp. But, based on last weekend's TV ratings, they've also developed a penchant for watching people talk about hockey.

Saturday's Hockey Night In Canada pre-game show was the second most-watched sports offering of the weekend, attracting an average of 900,000 viewers. Even if they all tuned in to catch Peter Puck, that's a pretty impressive number for a pre-game show. It outdrew every NFL game shown on the weekend.

On Friday, TSN drew an average of 268,000 viewers for an episode of That's Hockey prior to an NHL doubleheader. If you're comparing, that's more than the number who tuned in to Sunday's Raptors game.

Here are the top weekend sports ratings for English Canada, according to BBM Canada overnight calculations:

1. NHL, Bruins-Leafs/WIld-Sens/Habs-Islanders, Saturday, CBC: 1,876,000

2. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game show, Saturday, CBC: 900,000

3. NHL, Capitals at Canucks, Friday, TSN: 880,000

4. NHL, Maple Leafs at Sabres, Friday, TSN: 862,000

5. NFL, Early games, Sunday, CTV: 820,000

6. NFL, Colts at Jaguars, Saturday, Sportsnet: 745,000

7.  NHL, Capitals at Oilers, Saturday, CBC: 729,000

8. NFL, Vikings at Panthers, Sunday, TSN: 510,000*

9. NFL, Packers-Steelers/Bengals-Chargers, Sunday, Citytv/Sportsnet: 397,000

10. NFL, That's Hockey, Friday, TSN: 268,000

11. NBA, Hornets at Raptors, Sunday, CBC: 255,000

12. NFL, NFL Countdown, Sunday, TSN: 239,000

13. Skiing, Men's downhill, Saturday, CBC: 217,000

14. Bobsleigh, World Cup, Saturday, CBC: 191,000

* NBC viewers not calculated

OTHER STUFF: Vernon Wells hasn't been making much of an impact with his bat in recent seasons, but hs is making a difference off the field. Rogers Sportsnet is airing a documentary Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. highlighting the Blue Jays outfielder's charitable work. ... If you feared you might miss the Dec. 30 announcement of the Team Canada roster for the Olympics, you can sleep peacefully. The event will be aired live at noon on CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, OLN, OMNI, APTN, ATN, A Channel, CTV News Channel, CP24 and the NHL Network. It will also be on RDS and RIS Info Sports as well as on the FAN 590 in Toronto, FAN 960 in Calgary and CKAC in Montreal. There's no word on whether the Olympic consortium will also hire Joe Bowen to shout the show from the top of the CN Tower.

Comments

[Trent]

Am surprised TSN2: World Juniors exhibition on Sunday night didn't crack top 14 sports shows for the weekend.

[Primitive]

I might be me, but I don't find it at all odd that the majority of Olympic rights holders would air a press conference involving the team that will be the centrepiece of their Olympic coverage. I bet the Star will cover it too. Just a guess.

[Josh]

I really have to wonder why so many channels have to air the selection thing for the 2010 hockey team. I can see CTV (because most people get them of all the channels, TSN,RDS & Sportsnet (because they are sports channels) and RDS & CTV News Channel (breaking news/sports news channels). But seriously why OLN, everyone who gets OLN gets at least a couple of the other channels, same goes for 'A', CP24 and NHL Network. Is there really enough native Canadian Jerome Iginla fans that any amount of people will watch on APTN (although I suppose there is no other way in the north). ATN and OMNI just make no sense whatsoever.

Just to compare, the US team announce will most likely be on ONE network (NBC). I don't think anyone else is airing it live. And Canadian women's team announcement was most likely nowhere to be found on TV, it was available on CTVOlympics.ca.