Blue Jays still making waves on TV

Hey, maybe Rogers Sportsnet is on to something here, what with its decisions to claim all the Toronto Blue Jays telecasts and then launch a new channel to carry many of them.

The Jays are out of it as far as any meaningful baseball goes. They can beat Baltimore -- hey, who can't? -- and they should hang around the .500 mark this season. But post-season play isn't even a dream.

On top of that, attendance is awful -- Montreal Expos awful at times.

But despite all that, the team is still scoring on television. The Jays managed to break the Canadian Football League's hold on the top ratings for the weekend  by drawing more than 500,000 viewers for the second game of a doubleheader Sunday evening.

Sunday was a good day for auto racing, too, with TSN recording impressive ratings for its vroom-vroom tripleheader.

Here are the most-watched weekend sports events on English-Canadian television, according to BBM Canada:

1. CFL, Roughriders at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 917,000

2. CFL, Lions at Argonauts, Friday, TSN: 858,000

3. CFL, Eskimos at Blue Bombers, Saturday, TSN: 628,000

4. MLB, Blue Jays at Tigers (Game 2), Sunday, Sportsnet: 562,000

5. Auto racing, NASCAR Brickyard 500, Sunday, TSN: 500,000

6. MLB, Blue Jays at Tigers, Saturday, Sportsnet: 475,000

7. Auto racing, IRL Edmonton, Sunday, TSN: 399,000

8. MLB, Blue Jays at Tigers (Game 1), Sunday, Sportsnet: 382,000

9. PGA, Canadian Open final round, Sunday, CBS/Global: 363,000

10. PGA, Canadian Open third round, Saturday, CBS/Global: 295,000

11. Auto racing, F1 German Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 275,000

12. CFL, Pre-game show, Friday, TSN: 234,000

13. PGA, Canadian Open second round, TSN: 194,000

13. Athletics, Track and field, Saturday, CBC: 194,000

15. Soccer, Toronto FC at Dallas, Saturday, CBC: 153,000

Comments

[Tim]

How did the Jays break the hold on the CFL ratings domination? Looks to me like the CFL had the top three weekend events.

[Rick Grace]

Tim. There's still some Detroit fans in southern Ontario, thus the semi decent numbers for the Blue Jays. CFL will dominate until HNIC comes back. Imagine how big the Argos Lions game could have drawn if it was actually an interesting game to watch?

[Mike]

Except the Blue Jays have been pulling those "semi decent numbers" all season, proving you wrong again.

[Rick Grace]

Blue Jays are probably around 350-400,000 on average. Average ratings in my opinion for an area of what, 5 million people? And what about non Blue Jays baseball on TSN? Doesn't even register. But the bottom line is outside of the Leafs Toronto teams don't matter outside of Toronto.

[CanadianSportsFan]

Rick in case you haven't noticed nothing from TSN2 makes the ratings unless it is something huge like the Toronto Indy.

[Mike]

Except that the Blue Jays have been averaging more like 500,000 for a 162 game season, proving you wrong again.
What about non Canadian hockey on TSN2? Doesn't register either by comparison so that point is irrelevant.
"Doesn't even register. But the bottom line is outside of the Leafs Toronto teams don't matter outside of Toronto. " Even if that were true, you are reading a TORONTO NEWSPAPER so they matter here.
Funny how those who love to try to dish it out can't take it back in the slightest.

[JGH]

Seven days a week, Rick...consistently decent numbers for a team out of the race..seven days a week. A lot of content and eyeballs...seven days a week. Put it this way, if the were on once a week, I bet they would be at least 50% higher. A competitive team (and they are getting there) would do 800k a night easy.

[DLind]

The Blue Jays play 162 games, Rick. Thats pretty good ratings for a product that is saturated to that degree. Im sorry youre so desperate for it not to be true, but the numbers are objectively impressive.

[corey]

again the baseball people are sounding pretty daft with comments in regards to TV ratings. starting to sound like soccer fans.

[Joel]

Corey, I don't see the connection. TFC is in a playoff race, yet their ratings aren't remotely close to the Blue Jays, who got 561,000 facing the Orioles a couple weeks back.

[dennis amoakohene]

CFL got 917k

Easy to do where there is nothing else on.

[corey]

must not have been anything on tv for the jays to break 500k across canada.

when hockey is on, due we say "easy to due when nothing else is own"

you are all out too lunch with this, and are just embrassed by the fact cfl rules the tv ratings at this time of the year!

[Rick Grace]

Can't get people who trash the CFL's success?
We should be proud we have our own domestic league that is rivalling the NHL in popularity nationally.
And giving Canadians form coast to coast enjoyment.
Yet for some reason people are against that?
In fact they make excuses why we prefer it over sports from other countires?
Very strange and sadly very Canadian

And JGH.
CFL is playing 4 games a week for 4 weeks now. Averaging close to 800,000 per game. It will get bigger as the year goes on.
Nice your baseball team can get some viewers in Toronto.
But its a sport whose days are numbered.

[Mike]

Ricky Palin, do you know what the word hypocrite means?
"you are all out too lunch with this"
Corey, we're the ones posting facts about the Blue Jays ratings. How is that out to lunch?

[Joel]

"CFL is playing 4 games a week for 4 weeks now."

Unless your a fan of all teams, this doesn't matter as most fans will watch their team only. If your a Argos fan, 5 games have been played so far, not 18.

[Rick Grace]

No.
The CFL is playing almost as many games per week as the Blue Jays, yet they have double the ratings of the Blue Jays.
When you throw in the other baseball, they probably quadruple baseball.
And if the CFL were on 7 nights a week, they would do the same numbers.
What is it you don't get, and why can't you admit people prefer the CFL to baseball and these other fringe sports?

[Mike]

"The CFL is playing almost as many games per week as the Blue Jays,"
It's 6 or 7 versus 4, Ricky Palin. That maybe almost as many on an absolute basis, but it relative terms the Blue Jays play 50% or 75% more games than the entire league.
"yet they have double the ratings of the Blue Jays"
Not quite, more like 70% and again that is an entire league with 2 Canadian teams always playing versus one team.
"And if the CFL were on 7 nights a week, they would do the same numbers."
There is ZERO evidence to support that, Would you watch a show that was on every single night at 8 instead of just on Thursdays?
But go on Ricky Palin and explain how in your "real Canada" you can't like baseball because its communism.

[Brett S]

First of all this bickering back and forth between baseball and football fans is ridiculous, it's not either-or people it's sports! I am a huge Rider fan and huge Blue Jays fan, I don't understand why someone would try to belittle one sport for another. Also, notice how Canada's team once again is the highest rated game, they are the Leafs of the CFL for sure. The Blue Jays are also keeping up well in the ratings which I for one am happy for. Believe me people, the success of the Jays will not really effect the success of the CFL and vice versa. Learn to enjoy all sports people and your lives will have a lot more happiness

[Peter Brown]

Let's play the numbers game. Ricky likes to claim that all Blue Jays fans live in the GTA. So a 500,000 rating is 10 percent of the 5 million GTA residents. Meanwhile, the 3 million people who watch the 4 weekly CFL games (total, assuming that no one watches more than one game, which is a grand assumption) is about 10 percent of the nation's population. So, we can reasonably infer that both the Blue Jays and the CFL have a core audience somewhere around 10 percent of their market. So the heck are we arguing about?

[Peter Brown]

The bigger question is: Why does this blog only talk about the weekend ratings?! In the 24/7 sports world, when the Blue Jays play almost every night, and the CFL often has Wed. or Thurs. games, and the NHL and NBA play every night of the week, and the NFL's showcase game is on a Monday, why are we having any sort of debate about ratings with incomplete data?!!!

Chris Zelkovich, why don't you just give us a full week's ratings? Dear merciful Jebus, why?

[Jimmy D]

Who cares which sport is more popular? I dont watch CFL, I only watch playoff baseball, I occasionally watch NFL and Hockey, although I watch the playoffs in both leagues, only watch the NBA finals, but I really like the majors in Golf and Tennis, and for me personally soccer is on a pedestal way above all others. I really could not give one damn that soccer is the least popular here. I love it and I love the coverage my sport now gets. I am a season ticket holder for Toronto FC and love watching them on tv too, even though they are pretty abysmal. So, whatever sport or sports you are into, just enjoy them and appreciate the fact that they are televised and you can watch them. Who really cares about the popularity of your respective sports?

[Tim]

Gotta agree about the bashing. What's the point? I love the Riders and the CFL in general, I watch the NFL if I have some free time, and have enjoyed the Jays since I was a kid and am a big Leafs fan.

I dislike the sport of soccer, but would love to see its popularity grow because it's the world most-loved game and it would be nice if we could field a team at the WC.

I'm excited that the CFL is so popular these days. It is the most Canadian of all the leagues and it provides great entertainment value. That doesn't mean I need to bash the NFL if it does well too.

[Rick Grace]

Reason I love seeing the TV ratings because the media tries telling us how much more important these major league/American leagues are then our own sports.
So I laugh when I see the good old CFL kicking all these so called "major sports" in the a@@.
And I love how all the defenders of these so called "major league"/ American sports will fight to the death to prove that 400,000 who watch the Blue Jays is more then the 800,000 who watch the CFL.
Must be the new math they teach in Tranna eh?

[Ferd Buckles]

Like last season, the ratings will be expanded to include the entire week once the NFL starts up so they can include the Thursday and Monday night NFL games.

[D M]

Jimmy D, your comment is the most reasoned I have ever seen in this (and many other) comment section.
From a die hard Saskatchewan Roughrider fan.