Do Canadians really love right-wing vulgarity? Apparently not.
SunTV, despite Ezra Levant’s fevered cross-dressing antics, has fared dismally. Torontonians have tired of the crass Rob Ford. And now, contrary to all the hype, it seems that the CBC’s overpaid Don Cherry, surely the poster-child for oafish commentary, may actually be driving viewers away.
There is a considerable drop in viewers the instant game action ends and the theme music for Coach’s Corner begins. For example, ratings during the first period of last Saturday’s HNIC peaked at about 2.2 million viewers at 7:45 p.m. ET. But ratings show that 7:58, that figure had plummeted by almost 800,000 to about 1.4 million during the first intermission of the show, precisely when Cherry is in mid-jeremiad.
The week before, first-period numbers peaked around 2.5 million viewers. By the time Cherry was on, almost a million people had found something else to do, as the number dipped to around 1.5 million. The numbers from this season have consistently shown such peaks during the action to more modest figures during the first intermission.
Obviously I find this deeply reassuring—despite the fact that I’m helping to pay Cherry’s salary, indentured as I am to Canada’s state broadcaster™. The fit with SunTV would seem made in heaven, but here I’m just being vindictive—they’re in enough trouble as it is.