There's no tradition of major league rugby in Canada, but it's long been a popular high school sport in many parts of the country. So it's not exactly "foreign" either.

Don used to be must see TV for me back in the day. But when the Jets left Winnipeg for Phoenix my interest in everything NHL waned. By the time the Jets came back to Winnipeg, I returned to watching the games and the games only. I don't care one whit what any talking heads of any sports have to say, its all nonsense.

I know but rugby is still fringe enough to appeal to the globalist fetish in a big way.

Is Cherry’s segment on HNIC between periods actually live, or is it taped before? If taped before, everyone at Sportsnet who saw the tape beforehand should be fired.

Pretty sure it's live. Doesn't he primarily comment on the period that was just played?

AFAIK yes. Especially since it is always the Leafs.

Things must be different in Cherry’s Toronto - here in Vancouver the ones selling poppies were cadets and they were overwhelmingly Asian.

On the other hand, at least he didn’t make an insincere apology he didn’t believe in. Too many of those going around.

It's clear that he was headed on this collision course for some time. Too bad Cherry didn't retire before the inevitable happened.

For what it's worth I have always enjoyed his segments, sort of on the same level that I enjoyed watching Randy "Macho Man" Savage give interviews back in the day... because they were highly entertaining and unpredictable, not because they were a source of refined, erudite commentary.

Personally I'd cut the guy some slack. He's 85, I don't know how many 85 year olds are totally in tune with the times. If anyone is to blame, blame Sportsnet for giving him a platform so they could keep profiting from the viewership he delivered. Of course, once keeping him was no longer convenient, boom, it was over.

:cheers:

CFL TV ratings: Bombers, Stamps semi-final showdown outdraws MLS Cup

"The Canadian Football League scored a win over Major League Soccer.

Winnipeg and Calgary produced the first one million-plus television rating of the 2019 season in Sunday’s West Semi-Final. It was a highly anticipated dual that drew more eye balls in Canada than the MLS Cup played at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday. The Seattle Sounders beat Toronto FC 3-1 to win the rubber finals rubber match between the two clubs. 1.5 million tuned in for the 2016 match and 1.3 million during TFC’s first league championship in 2017. TFC plays in our country’s largest market, but the average audience dropped to 747,600 for the third MLS Cup in Toronto franchise history.

The CFL has experienced a similar downward trend for their Division Semi-Finals, posting over one million in 2017, followed by 988,900 in 2018 and 863,850. That’s a loss creeping towards 200,000 viewers during a three-year sample size. Although, it’s not declining at the same rate as MLS soccer.

Cord-cutters are a large reason why TV numbers are waning in all sorts of genres. There are more people accessing CFL games via TSN’s streaming service and various other unmeasured streams. Overall when compared to MLS, the CFL has to be happy the ratings are falling less steeply and the Saskatchewan Roughriders were not even playing.

For those curious there were a number of other sports for fanatics to take in on Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings took on the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football checking in at 725,300, the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Chicago Blackhawks for Rogers Hometown Hockey 681,000, and the Toronto Raptors at the Los Angeles Lakers 452,000."

Semi-Final Sunday TV ratings 2019:

Edmonton at Montreal — 626,900
Winnipeg at Calgary — 1,100,800

Average: 863,850

2018

B.C. at Hamilton — 697,800
Winnipeg at Saskatchewan — 1,280,000

Average: 988,900

2017

Saskatchewan at Ottawa — 975,000
Edmonton at Winnipeg — 1,128,000

Average: 1,051,500

https://3downnation.com/2019/11/12/c...draws-mls-cup/

You can add 400,000 from RDS to the Edmonton-Montreal game's ratings.

What exactly is a "rubber finals rubber match"?

It's 3down writing.

TSN really tried to hype up the Trilogy aspect of Seattle/Toronto meeting for the third time in four years but it seemed very flat.

Over my head then.

So both CFL semifinals drew over a million viewers each. That's not bad.

I felt like I heard way less about the MLS Cup this year than for Toronto's past appearances. Other than TSN's commercials and a couple of preview articles in the local paper, I didn't really see any coverage although I'm obviously far from Toronto's soccer scene.

Was the MLS Cup on TSN1 or TSN2? Or were the CFL games on TSN1?

Also, it's possible that at least some Canadian viewers - say, 50,000? - watched the MLS Cup on the mainstream US network that was carrying it (ABC?).

those CFL numbers are very healthy considering how many people have cut the cord on cable and how many people now stream the games than watch on tv. I have several American friends in Charlotte and Atlanta who watch some CFL by streaming it.

It would be interesting to know what kind of numbers the CFL got on ESPN2. I'm expecting it wouldn't be much given that it's a Sunday during NFL season, but still.

I would like to see the CFL post their streaming numbers more often

MLS Cups 2016 and 2017 were both the first Saturday of December, whereas MLS Cup 2019 was the second Sunday of November. Change of schedule and a worse time slot definitely played a factor in general viewing figures, but it also comes down to TFC being less compelling this time around.

Definitely much less hype in 2019 than in 16 or 17. 16 obviously had hype because it was their first appearance and 17 because it was the best season an MLS team had ever had (and arguably the best team still). This year's team was much weaker and their run to the final was pretty unlikely.