Is Don Cherry a Drag on CBC Ratings?

The number of viewers plummets during the first intermission of Hockey Night in Canada.

Don Cherry might be dragging down CBC's ratings for Hockey Night in Canada, according to an analysis from The Globe and Mail. While ratings for the Saturday night hockey broadcast remain strong – 2.2 million Canadians tuned into the first period of last Saturday's tilt between the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins – as soon as the first period ends and Cherry begins his weekly lecture, the ratings plummet. This past weekend, 800,000 fewer people watched Cherry's Coach's Corner segment than the first period; the weekend before that, the difference was about a million viewers. Granted, the dip in viewers is even more pronounced during the second intermission's "Satellite Hotstove" segment. But as the Globe's Bruce Dowbiggin notes, "Cherry remains a strong brand, but claims that he brings viewers to HNIC or that his segment powers the ratings are not borne out by this season’s numbers. The game itself remains the biggest selling point." Whether the dip in viewers this year is tied to his early season rant about three retired enforcers being "pukes" isn't known, but we'd speculate it certainly didn't bring more people to Cherry's pulpit?