The Numbers Don't Lie ... Or Do They?

There's an old saying about the reams of statistics we often use as a tool to win arguments that involve just about anything in sports.

The numbers never lie.

It's a thought that came to mind earlier today when the Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium announced that Friday night's opening ceremony at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games produced a whopping average audience of 13.3 million, making it the most viewed television event ever in Canada (we're guessing the old mark was the 10.6 million who watched the 2002 Olympic men's gold-medal hockey game).

Now on the one hand, that number shouldn't be entirely surprising. These Games will wind up being the biggest sports event we'll ever see in most of our lives in Canada and the opening ceremony is typically the biggest must-see event of an Olympics.

So what's the rub, you ask?

First of all, the measuring method for the Canadian television industry was changed to a people meter system that is said to more accurately reflect viewers' habits (and, most significantly, takes better account of group viewing). The end result is that ratings for every sports event have skyrocketed since the new system was put into place. There are new records aplenty.

Also, it most be noted that the above-mentioned figure is an aggregation of viewership on 11 different television networks, although most (nearly nine million) tuned in on CTV. Whether that number would have been higher without the participation of networks such as TSN and Rogers Sportsnet ... well, who really knows?

Perhaps the most revealing number is this one: the opening ceremony broadcast drew an 84 share, which means 84 per cent of Canadian televisions in use Friday night were tuned into one of the consortium networks airing the Olympics. That's nothing short of astounding.

Nope, that number doesn't lie, either.

We're a country going ga-ga already over a home Games.

And the fun has just begun.