Ron Burgundy covers the Canadian Olympic Curling qualifiers

[Barrister]

Man o man - crazy game between Glenn Howard and Kevin Martin last night.  Howard, who is no slouch with 4 Canadian and 4 world championships, was leading in the 9th end when he somehow allowed Kevin Martin (who won the 2010 gold at the Olympics) to score 4 in a come from behind victory.

Don't suppose anyone else is watching any of this?

[crazy canuck]

Don't suppose anyone else is watching any of this?

According to you, slightly more than those who watch the CFL.

So, yeah, your conclusion is valid.

[Eddie Teach]

Apparently Ron Burgundy and Champ Kind will be guest hosting ESPN's 6pm SportsCenter tomorrow.

I think that movie needs to make two hundred million just to cover the promotional costs.

[Barrister]

Apparently Ron Burgundy and Champ Kind will be guest hosting ESPN's 6pm SportsCenter tomorrow.

I think that movie needs to make two hundred million just to cover the promotional costs.

Why?  All of this kind of stuff (doing the Road of the Rings, hosting SportsCentre) is completely free.

Now they have been buying paid ads too, but seem to be relying a lot on free/viral media.

[Eddie Teach]

Ferrell, Carrel and co. don't work for free.


I was exaggerating, of course.

[grumbler]

Here's the TSN average audience for hockey, CFL and the Brier (Men's national Championship).

NHL 707,000.

Brier 685,000.

CFL 637,000

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/08/curling-continues-ratings-climb-at-brier

The NHL championship* only draws in 70,000 more Canadians than the curling championship, and the CFL championship draws in even fewer than the curling championship?  I am:  astonished.



* I know you would never compare an apple like a regular-season NHL game to an orange like a championship curling competition, so assume you used championship numbers for both hockey and curling.

[derspiess]

I'm sure the promotional stuff was written into their contracts.  And if any of them are getting a small cut, it's in their interest to promote it anyway.

[Barrister]

Here's the TSN average audience for hockey, CFL and the Brier (Men's national Championship).

NHL 707,000.

Brier 685,000.

CFL 637,000

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/08/curling-continues-ratings-climb-at-brier

The NHL championship* only draws in 70,000 more Canadians than the curling championship, and the CFL championship draws in even fewer than the curling championship?  I am:  astonished.



* I know you would never compare an apple like a regular-season NHL game to an orange like a championship curling competition, so assume you used championship numbers for both hockey and curling.

The article itself explains what those numbers are for.  The NHL and CFL numbers are for the season average.  For TSN (the cable channel involved) the NHL numbers include some early round playoffs, but not the finals.  The CFL numbers include the playoffs and the Grey Cup, but are the average of the entire season.

And you'd have to know what the Brier (Men's national championship) is like.  Yes, it is a championship.  But it is a championship selected coming out of a 12-team round robin tournament.  The tournament is played over an 8 day period, with two or three draws (set of games) per day, with multiple games being played at the same time on the same sheet of ice.  So the brier number is the average for all of those games, and is not the number for the final championship game itself.  Essentially they play an entire "season" of curling in just over one week.

[Eddie Teach]

  Essentially they play an entire "season" of curling in just over one week.

Sounds exhausting.

[Barrister]

  Essentially they play an entire "season" of curling in just over one week.

Sounds exhausting.

I imagine it would be.  I've played in bonspeils (curling tournaments) where you play 5 games in 2-3 days, and it's surprisingly tough.

[Grey Fox]

It's the Final, damn it. No s.

[grumbler]

The article itself explains what those numbers are for.  The NHL and CFL numbers are for the season average.  For TSN (the cable channel involved) the NHL numbers include some early round playoffs, but not the finals.  The CFL numbers include the playoffs and the Grey Cup, but are the average of the entire season.

And you'd have to know what the Brier (Men's national championship) is like.  Yes, it is a championship.  But it is a championship selected coming out of a 12-team round robin tournament.  The tournament is played over an 8 day period, with two or three draws (set of games) per day, with multiple games being played at the same time on the same sheet of ice.  So the brier number is the average for all of those games, and is not the number for the final championship game itself.  Essentially they play an entire "season" of curling in just over one week.

In other words, those numbers are bogus. 

If you want to argue that the Brier numbers represent a playoff, rather than a championship game, then that seems supported by the evidence.  They certainly don't represent the equivalent of a regular season plus a playoff, and thus the comparison artificially inflated the curling numbers... unless one is interested only in the numbers of people watching these sports on a single network under some random set of circumstances, which produces no numbers that anyone should care about.

[Barrister]

The article itself explains what those numbers are for.  The NHL and CFL numbers are for the season average.  For TSN (the cable channel involved) the NHL numbers include some early round playoffs, but not the finals.  The CFL numbers include the playoffs and the Grey Cup, but are the average of the entire season.

And you'd have to know what the Brier (Men's national championship) is like.  Yes, it is a championship.  But it is a championship selected coming out of a 12-team round robin tournament.  The tournament is played over an 8 day period, with two or three draws (set of games) per day, with multiple games being played at the same time on the same sheet of ice.  So the brier number is the average for all of those games, and is not the number for the final championship game itself.  Essentially they play an entire "season" of curling in just over one week.

In other words, those numbers are bogus. 

If you want to argue that the Brier numbers represent a playoff, rather than a championship game, then that seems supported by the evidence.  They certainly don't represent the equivalent of a regular season plus a playoff, and thus the comparison artificially inflated the curling numbers... unless one is interested only in the numbers of people watching these sports on a single network under some random set of circumstances, which produces no numbers that anyone should care about.

The numbers are what they are.

It was all spelled out in the article.  They are of course comparing apples to oranges.  They also pointed out that in curling many of the draws are mid-day, mid week which is tough to compare to hockey or football which are exclusively played in prime time or weekends.  Hockey and curling to a lesser extent are also covered on other networks, with differing broadcast reach.

[fhdz]

It's the Final, damn it. No s.

In several professional, non-collegiate sports (basketball, baseball and hockey come to mind readily) the champion is decided by a series of games rather than by one game. Thus, "finals" is a pretty common term, often misused, but probably understandably so.

[Grey Fox]

It's the Final, damn it. No s.

In several professional, non-collegiate sports (basketball, baseball and hockey come to mind readily) the champion is decided by a series of games rather than by one game. Thus, "finals" is a pretty common term, often misused, but probably understandably so.

Yes, however, it's the Stanley Cup Final.