Who’s afraid of the big bad World Junior Hockey Championship Deathstar? Not rival programmers this year. The annual junior shinny tourney used to outdraw Grey Cups and Super Bowls back when Canada was kicking ass.
In January of 2010, Canada lost in the finals but an overnight, estimated 5,625,000 watched on TSN.
The next year, a record 6.23 million tuned in on TSN. Coupled with RDS, that final drew nearly 7 million viewers. TSN’s post-game show alone drew 3.6 million that year.
Granted, that was back in those giddy days when those newfangled portable people meters were counting ticks on trees out in the yard. Still, TSN, still smarting from that Rogers hockey deal, probably thought they’d get more of a lift from this year’s tourney.
This year’s semi-final where Canada lost to Finland drew an overnight, estimated 2,681,000 on TSN Jan. 4. With Canada out of the medals, the ratings for the Gold and Bronze games stumbled the next day to record lows. The Bronze game won by Russia drew 915,000 and the final won by Finland barely cracked a million in the overnight estimates.
More people in Canada watch How I Met Your Mother each week. How the mighty have fallen.
