Hockey Night in Canada’s ratings declined significantly after Coach’s Corner Don Cherry was fired in November, according to Canada’s rating firm.
Numeris, which published the 30 most-watched programs on Canadian television weekly, found that Hockey Night in Canada’s rating crashed immediately after Cherry was fired, and has continued to decline since.
Hockey Night in Canada, which is consistently on Numeris’ top 30, failed to make the list for two weeks after Sportsnet fired the iconic Coaches’ Corner host.
The most recent Numeris report found that Hockey Night in Canada only garnered 810,000 views on December 14th, a decline of nearly 18% from the same week in 2018.
That same week Survivor received 1,975,000 views and Young Sheldon had 1,890,000 views.
Don Cherry was fired on November 11th after he urged Canadians to wear a poppy to support Canadian veterans. Progressive critics alleged Cherry’s rant targeted immigrants for not wearing poppies.
“You people that come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada,” Cherry said on the November 9th edition of Coach’s Corner.
Since Cherry’s departure, his former co-host Ron MacLean and progressive commentators have suggested that the sport of hockey has a “white privilege” issue.
“As a general rule, they’re often all white and when they’re not all white, the whites often have the speaking part,” MacLean said on November 30.
Since his firing, Cherry received an outpouring of support from everyday Canadians, as well as members of the hockey community.
