Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir land the most-watched moment of the Games to date with 4.3 million tuning in for their gold medal moment on Monday, Feb. 19
After 10 days of intense competition, 29 million Canadians* (82 per cent of the population) have watched some part of CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 across all English and French television network partners and digital streaming simulcasts on cbc.ca/olympics, ici.radio-canada.ca/jeuxolympiques and CBC/Radio-Canada Olympics apps. CBC’s English-language primetime coverage across all broadcast networks has garnered a 2+ average minute audience of more than 3 million viewers to date, with CBC alone delivering a 24 per cent primetime audience share since the start of the Olympic Winter Games**.
As the momentum and excitement builds, the most-watched day of the Olympic Winter Games to date was Day 2 (Sun. Feb. 11), with 18.8 million Canadians tuning in across all live television and digital platforms, and Day 10 (Mon. Feb. 19) not far behind with 18.7 million viewers across all platforms. With Team Canada on track to break Vancouver 2010’s record haul of 26 medals (21 so far at PyeongChang 2018) and more potential medal moments to come, Canadians are choosing to stay up late and wake up early to watch CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage. Viewers in Canada are also preparing for a late night on Wednesday to watch the women’s ice hockey gold medal game, as Canada faces off against their USA archrivals in the hopes of winning a record-setting fifth straight gold medal. The action begins at 10:45 p.m. ET (7:45 p.m. PT) on CBC and TSN2.
The most-watched moments from CBC’s broadcast coverage of the past 10 days of competition at PyeongChang 2018 are as follows (based on overnight data):
• Day 0 (Fri. Feb. 9): 2 million viewers – The Olympic Winter Games cauldron is lit at 8:09 a.m. ET.
• Day 1 (Sat. Feb. 10): 3.4 million viewers – Canadians Max Parrot and Mark McMorris win silver and bronze medals, respectively, in Men’s Slopestyle Snowboard at 9:28 p.m. ET.
• Day 2 (Sun. Feb. 11): 3.6 million viewers – Canada’s first gold medal win, in Team Figure Skating, at 9:57 p.m. ET.
• Day 3 (Mon. Feb. 12): 2.3 million viewers – Men’s Alpine Skiing at 10:02 p.m. ET.
• Day 4 (Tues. Feb. 13): 3.2 million viewers – Shaun White’s record gold medal win in Snowboard Halfpipe at 10:03 p.m. ET.
• Day 5 (Wed. Feb. 14): 2.8 million viewers – The ends of both Canada vs. Korea Women’s Curling match at 9:34 p.m. ET, and Canada vs. US Women’s Ice Hockey match at 12:26 a.m. ET.
• Day 6 (Thurs. Feb. 15): 2 million viewers – During Women’s Snowboard Cross at 10:29 p.m. ET.
• Day 7 (Fri. Feb. 16): 2.7 million viewers – Final minutes of the shootout in the Canada vs. Czech Republic Men’s Ice Hockey match at 12:44 a.m. ET.
• Day 8 (Sat. Feb. 17): 2.7 million viewers – Final minutes of the Men’s Curling match, Canada vs. Switzerland, at 9:53 p.m.
• Day 9 (Sun. Feb. 18): 3.9 million viewers – During Canadians Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje’s performance as part of the Ice Dance Short Program, at 10:32 p.m. ET. Performances in the same event by fellow Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and French dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, also each included peak moments of 3.8 million viewers.
• Day 10 (Mon. Feb. 19): 4.3 million viewers – The highest peak moment to date was at 11:36 p.m. ET, as Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir stood on the top of the podium following their dazzling gold medal-winning performance in the Ice Dance Free Program.
CBC/Radio-Canada continues its extensive live and encore coverage of PyeongChang 2018 through to February 25, including the Closing Ceremony. Canadians can visit cbc.ca/olympics or ici.radio-canada.ca/jeuxolympiques for the full schedule.
*Sources: Numeris TV Meter, Friday February 9 to Monday February 19, Total TV, M-Su 2a-2a, Total Canada, AMA & CumRch generated by Infosys+ TV. Based on preliminary overnight data.
**Source (Share): Numeris TV Meter, Friday February 9 to Monday February 19, M-Su 7p-11p, daypart data, local time, Total Canada, Share (%) among Total English TV stations, generated by Infosys+ TV. Based on preliminary overnight data.
-30-
About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada’s trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.
For more information, contact:
Simon Bassett, CBC
simon.bassett@cbc.ca
416-205-8533 (t); 416-988-1590 (m)
