Source: Vancouver Sun

The 2010 Winter Olympics delivered the five most-watched television events in Canadian history, topped by the 16.6 million Canadians who saw the entire Canada-U. S. men's gold medal hockey game, the CTV-Rogers broadcast consortium said Monday.

About 26.5 million Canadians watched at least part of that game and 22 million viewers -- two-thirds of the Canadian population -- were watching when Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to capture Canada's 14th gold medal of the Games.

The rest of the top five Olympic broadcasts included the closing ceremony (average audience of 14.3 million), the opening ceremony (13.5 million), Canada-U. S. men's hockey on Feb. 21 (10.6 million) and Canada-Russia men's hockey last Wednesday (10.5 million).

CTV-Rogers said 30.5 million Canadians -- 91 per cent of the population -- watched at least some part of the consortium's Games coverage on the final day of the Olympics.

The most-watched telecast in Canada last year -- the 2009 Grey Cup game -- drew an average audience of 6.1 million viewers.

U.S. Olympic broadcaster NBC said the epic gold medal hockey game on Sunday drew an average viewership of 27.6 million and a Nielsen rating of 15.2 -- a 45.5-per-cent increase over the same gold medal hockey matchup at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

It was the most-watched hockey game in the U.S. since 32.8 million viewers watched the 1980 gold-medal game between the U.S. and Finland, following the U.S. "Miracle on Ice" win over the Soviet Union.

© Vancouver Sun