The victory that put the Toronto Blue Jays into their first World Series in 32 years was also a big win for Sportnet.
The Rogers’ specialty channel issued a release Tuesday claiming that the Game 7 victory over the Seattle Mariners was the most-watched Blue Jays game ever. The American League Championship clincher was watched live by an average minute audience of six million Canadians. That topped the 5.1 million total from Game 6 of the bat-flipping days of the 2015 ALCS,
Sportsnet further claims that Monday night’s audience peaked at 8.3 million ar around 11 p.m. ET when reliever Jeff Hoffman struck out the Mariners’ Julio Rodriguez to record the game’s final out.
A check of the overnight estimates finds that 4,749,000 watched the game on Sportsnet National (1,684,000 of that tally from the 18-49 demo) with a further 619,000 watching Monday night on Rogers’ broadcast network Citytv. Other viewer numbers are drawn from digital sources.
The tune-in for Sportsnet’s pre-show averaged 1.9 million, with 2.8 million sticking around for the postgame show featuring an emotional Vladimir Guerrero being awarded the series MVP. Then it was cover your ears and hide the kids time as cameras recorded the champaign and profanity-soaked clubhouse celebration.
As I mentioned to John Oakley on AM640 Global News Tuesday afternoon, I think it is a bit rich when the people who flip out when Jays’ manger John Schneider drops an F-bomb on TV are the same ones who, two nights later, start hurling them right back when Schneider puts in the wrong pitcher.
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The number crunchers at Sportsnet say that the seven-game ALCS averaged 4.4 million viewers with the entire MLB postseason averaging 1.4 million Canadian viewers. Baseball’s been berry, berry good this season for Rogers.
That postseason average is about to go up. The Blue Jays batter up for the first game in the 2025 World Series Friday against the formidable Los Angeles Dodgers. It all kicks off with Blue Jays Central starting at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT on Sportsnet.
