The tumbling television dominoes of the Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been blamed for many things over the years, laughable management strategies, woeful teams on the ice, and a less than dedicated ownership not quite holding the ever so loyal fans best interests at heart.

But now, horror of horrors, this years particularly bad brand of the Maple Leafs are being blamed for cancelled television shows. In a wee bit of a stretch, the producers of MVP: The secret lives of hockey wives have come up with a rather humorous suggestion. That the potential departure of the Leafs from the television screens during the playoffs was the root cause of their programs cancellation.

The theory being that the CBC will take such a huge financial hit without the Leafs colossus rolling through the playoffs that cutbacks were deemed necessary even before the regular season came to an end.

While there is probably a germination of a truth to the idea that TV revenues are going to drop without the largest market in the nation in the playoffs, there still should be enough viewers to keep Peter Mansbridge employed and the National news on the air, as well as a few other night time diversions.

We’ll give the Leafs the blame when the situation warrants it, but blaming them for bad television isn’t in the cards, unless of course we’re talking about that period of time between 7 and 10 ET, 4 and 7 PT when the Leafs are the showcase presentation, now that on most Saturday nights is some worrisome programming...

More to the point for the folks at MVP might be a more introspective look at their product and whether there really was an audience there for the saga of what goes on after the skates come off.
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Judging by the ratings and the rather quick decision of the CBC’s programming department the answer was No, No, NO.

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The above post first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out!