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CUME Day 17: Crosby's goal gold for ratings

Yonge St. in Toronto erupts after Canada's big win. Photo: Media in Canada

The Consortium couldn't have put together a better last day of the Games if it had written it themselves. Canada's overtime win in men's hockey - with its immortal overtime goal - drew in a staggering audience of 16.6 million, trumping not just previous Olympic events but every other sporting event on TV. The viewership was spread across all Consortium channels airing the game, but 10.3 million tuned into CTV alone, with 2.78 million watching on TSN and 2.52 million watching on V/CPAC and RDS. The game peaked in overtime, netting an overall viewership of 22 million.

The closing ceremonies kept those viewers, retaining or bringing in an average of 14.3 million viewers for the oversized table hockey and pyrotechnic-fuelled Nickelback performance that marked the last few hours of the Games.

The Consortium released some final tallies for its last CUME report of the Games, reporting that the average viewer watched 38 hours of Olympic coverage on TV. CTV was the prime beneficiary of this, tripling its average full-day audience versus the preceding five weeks on the channel. It also won every time slot in prime time during the Games in both total viewers and in the adult 25-to-54 and 18-to-49 demos. TSN was the second most-watched network, with Rogers Sportsnet earning the bronze.

The most-watched events of the entire Winter Games were:

1. 16.6 million - men's hockey, CAN/USA, Feb. 28
2. 14.3 million - closing ceremony, Feb. 28
3. 13.5 million** - opening ceremony, Feb. 12
4. 10.6 million - men's hockey, CAN/USA, Feb. 21
5. 10.5 million - men's hockey, CAN/RUS, Feb. 24
6. 9.7 million - men's hockey, CAN/SVK, Feb. 26
7. 7.5 million - women's hockey, CAN/USA, Feb. 25
8. 7.44 million - short track speed skating, men's 1000m finals, Feb. 20
9. 7.4 million - men's hockey, CAN/GER, Feb. 23
10. 6.9 million - men's curling, CAN/NOR, Feb. 27

**Based on final BBM Canada data.

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