The Great Canadian Ratings Report: MLS not scoring on television

It's the case of the missing viewers.

When Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps kicked off the 2015 MLS season last week, a record average audience of 353,000 viewers tuned in to watch. All told, 1.9 million Canadians watched at least some part of the game.

So when the teams headed into the second weekend, good ratings were sure to follow, right? Uh, well, not even close.

The Whitecaps game against Chicago on Saturday averaged a measly 96,000 viewers on TSN. But that was positively blockbuster stuff compared with what TFC drew for its clash with Columbus. An average of only 58,000 viewers tuned to TSN, making it one of the least-watched events on television last week.

We're talking infomercial territory here. Those games drew less than short-track speed skating, pre-dawn curling, the CIS men's basketball final and pretty much everything else. Had lawnmower racing been on, it might have outdrawn TFC.

If this were a one-off, it might not be noteworthy. For all kinds of reasons, viewers go missing after a big draw. But this is the second year in a row that the MLS has opened with a relative bang -- okay, not in the same league as hockey, football or baseball -- only to come crashing back to earth the next week.

It's not that the MLS doesn't have a devoted following in Canada. It's just that there aren't very many of them and success at the gate has not produced success on television. TFC, in particular, saw numbers drop off the map last season as their much-hyped overhaul turned to dust.

The sad thing is that those double-digit ratings aren't out of the ordinary for Canada's MLS teams. They're pretty much business as usual.

Obviously, there are plenty of soccer fans. Premier League games on the weekend drew three times the audience that TFC managed. But MLS fans are harder to find, apparently.

This doesn't mean the MLS is a failure in Canada. A championship contender can turn things around pretty quickly, like the Toronto Raptors' experience last spring. But based on what Canada's MLS teams have shown so far, that could be a long way off.

Considering the publicity the teams get -- front-page newspaper coverage and plenty of attention from columnists -- they should be doing a lot better than that.

So should the CIS, which didn't celebrate Sportsnet's university championship day in high style. The high-water mark came with the men's hockey final, which averaged 61,000 viewers -- better than Rogers Hometown Hockey pre-game show, anyway.

But the good sign was that this university blitz experiment did produce higher ratings for basketball and women's hockey. So there's some hope, though Sportsnet will have to start doing some regular-season games to build up interest.

On the other hand, the Toronto Blue Jays have to take heart from a spring-training game that drew an average of 322,000 viewers to Sportsnet on Saturday. Despite all the bad news coming out of Florida, the fans are obviously still engaged.

Here are the most-watched sports events from the following weekend, according to Numeris overnight ratings:

1. NHL, Leafs-Canucks/Habs-Isles/Jets-Lightning, Saturday, CBC-Rogers: 2,100,000

2. NHL, Flames-Avs/Preds-Kings, Saturday, CBC-Rogers: 753,000

3. Women's world curling, Canada vs. China, Sunday, TSN: 608,000

4. NHL, FLyers at Senators, Sunday, City: 521,000

5. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC-Rogers: 460,000

6. Auto racing, NASCAR Camping World 500, Sunday, TSN: 390,000

7. MLB, Orioles vs. Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 322,000

8. NHL, Blackhawks at Sharks, Saturday, Sportsnet: 227,000

9. Auto racing, F1 Australian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 216,000

10. NBA, Trailblazers at Raptors, Sunday, Sportsnet: 215,000

11. Women's world curling, Canada vs. Sweden, Sunday, TSN: 213,000

12. Soccer, W. Ham-Arsenal/WBA-Stk, Saturday, TSN: 195,000

13. NBA, Heat at  Raptors, Friday, Sportsnet One: 190,000

13. NHL, Red Wings at Penguins, Sunday, Sportsnet: 190,000

15. Soccer, Southampton at Chelsea, Sunday, Sportsnet: 181,000

16. MLB, Orioles vs. Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 164,000

17. Speed skating, world short-track championships, Sunday, CBC: 129,000

18. Soccer, QPR at Crystal Palace, Saturday, Sportsnet: 121,000

19. Women's world curling, Canada vs. Finland, Saturday, TSN: 119,000

19. Soccer, Tottenham at Man U, Sunday, Sportsnet: 119,000

21. UFC, preliminaries, Saturday, TSN: 116,000

22. MLS, Vancouver at Chicago, Saturday, TSN: 96,000

22. Soccer, Leicester at Hull, Saturday, Sportsnet: 96,000

24. Speed skating, world short-track championships, Saturday, CBC: 91,000

25. Hockey, CIS men's final, Sunday, Sportsnet 360: 61,000

26. NHL, Hometown Hockey pre-game, Sunday, City: 60,000

27. MLS, Toronto FC at Columbus, Saturday, TSN: 58,000

28. Basketball, CIS men's final, Sunday, Sportsnet One/360: 53,000

THREE TO WATCH

Let the madness begin: It's easy (and sort of fun) to dismiss the annual March Madness basketball extravaganza as overhyped, overheated and overrated. But the fact is that the college hoops tournament produces some incredible drama. When things get going on Thursday (noon ET, CBS and TSN) you can expect some major upsets before the first weekend is done, with millions tearing up their brackets and swearing never to enter another NCAA pool again -- or at least until next year.

The big sweep: For those inclined toward icier sports, the real March Madness involves rocks and brooms. In addition to the world championships, there's the fourth event in the Grand Slam of Curling, which features the best men's teams in the country. It all starts Thursday, 3:30 p.m. ET (Sportsnet.)

Tomorrow, the world: Jennifer Jones has a pretty good collection of medals and trophies and the Manitoba curler is hoping to add to that in Sapporo, Japan at the women's world championship. The final goes Sunday at 2 a.m. ET (TSN), which might mean a late night for many.