The 2018 MLS season for Canadian teams offers some promise. A MLS Cup title for Toronto FC. A playoff win for the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Montréal Impact have a good chance to be competitive.
U.S. television isn't so convinced ordering up 4 Toronto FC games in 2018, the same amount as in 2017. Montréal and Vancouver each had a scheduled TV appearance in 2017. In 2018, neither team is scheduled to be on U.S. television. How does a playoff team get shutout of TV appearances?
Toronto FC starts its 2018 home schedule facing the Columbus Crew, the team the Reds defeated in the East final. The game at BMO Field is Saturday at 1 pm Eastern. Montréal travels to Vancouver on Sunday for the start of the season for both teams at 6 pm Eastern, 3 pm local time.
Here is the highly limited U.S. national telecasts for 2018:
May 9 Seattle @ Toronto 7:30p FS1 July 1 New York Red Bulls @ Toronto 4:30p FOX August 4 Toronto @ Atlanta 4p ESPN August 12 New York City FC @ Toronto 4p ESPN
Games can be added down the stretch to the U.S. TV schedule.
TSN will carry Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps games. TVA Sports will carry Montréal Impact games.
CTV continues with an early-season package of Saturday afternoon MLS telecasts. The Canadian network has 9 games, up from 7 in 2017.
March 10 Columbus @ Toronto 1p March 17 Toronto @ Montréal 3p March 31 Vancouver @ Columbus 3p April 14 Toronto @ Colorado 3p April 21 Toronto @ Houston 3p April 28 Chicago @ Toronto 3p May 5 Vancouver @ Minnesota 3p May 12 Philadelphia @ Montréal 3p May 19 Vancouver @ FC Dallas 4p
If you are looking for MLS Live, the out-of-market rights for TV games has been shifted to ESPN Plus, not to be confused with Watch ESPN or ESPN3. Reportedly, the cost of ESPN Plus will be $60/year ($5/month) compared to $79 for MLS Live. Games airing on national TV would not be available on the service.
Editor's note:This story has been updated to reflect this year's Super Bowl ratings on CTV, CTV Two, and TSN.
Super Bowl advertisers have certainly relied on Canadians to sell their products. So in the second year where Canadians can watch Super Bowl ads on their TVs, we only have a single Canadian as a spokesperson. Squarespace had Keanu Reeves as its 2018 spokesperson.
Reeves uses Squarespace for his Arch Motorcycle company Web site. The company says Reeves did his own stunt on the motorcycle.
In 2017, Justin Bieber was the sole Canadian used in a Super Bowl ad, this one for T-Mobile commercial.
Ryan Reynolds in Ryanville for the Hyundai Elantra
Seth Rogen for Bud Light along with Amy Schumer where they recruit people for the non-partisan Bud Light Party
Drake poking at his Hotline Bling video for T-Mobile
Drake for Air Jordans
Norm Macdonald as Colonel Harlan Sanders for Kentucky Fried Chicken
John A. Macdonald via the Canadian $10 bill for PayPal
Eugene Levy for Snickers
This feels like revenge since Canadians can watch the Super Bowl ads as a time to stop hiring Canadians to promote the American products.
Like last year, there was a commercial for a Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson movie. In 2017, the movie was Baywatch while this year, Skyscraper is the movie. Baywatch looked a lot better than this movie. As we noted, Johnson's father was Canadian; the younger Johnson was on the Calgary Stampeders practice roster as a linebacker in 1995 but didn't last long.
Bell Media lost 2.85 million viewers between 2016 and 2017. In 2017, Bell Media expanded the game to be shown on CTV, CTV Two, and TSN.
Like last year, Bell Media offered cash and prizes to entice Canadians to watch their feed instead of a NBC TV affiliate. Russell Peters was added to the showcase effort this year.
In 2016, the viewership was 7.32 million. In 2017, the numbers were 4.47 million. When we get numbers for 2018, we will update this story.
The Canadian TV ratings for Super Bowl LII were comparable to last year's numbers. Super Bowl LII drew 4.45 million Canadians, down from 4.47 million for Super Bowl LI in 2017. The slight drop mirrored the U.S. ratings with a 7% drop from 111.3 million in 2017 to 103.4 million viewers in 2018.
At least this year, there wasn't a screwup with how the contest worked.
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In the only other Super Bowl played in Minneapolis, Mark Rypien became the only Canadian to win the Super Bowl MVP award in Super Bowl XXVI at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome as Washington defeated Buffalo 37–24 on January 26, 1992.
video credit: YouTube/Squarespace photo credit: Squarespace
The Toronto International Film Festival gives out major awards to Canadian film: Best Canadian Feature Film and Best Canadian First Feature Film. The 2015 winners got a lot of recognition from winning their awards. The 2016 winners virtually disappeared at the box office. We might get a split decision in 2017.
The Best Canadian Feature Film went to the Quebecois zombie film Les Affamés from Robin Aubert. Zombies might make people forget their fears over subtitles. Then again, as you can see in the trailer above, I couldn't find a trailer that had English subtitles.
The Best Canadian First Feature Film went to Luk' Luk'I, directed by Wayne Wapeemukwa. The documentary showcases 5 Vancouverites on the low rungs on society during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The film was built out of a 2014 short from Wapeemukwa about a full-time mother/part-time sex-worker who goes missing in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
I had to look back to find Luk' Luk'I and barely remembered Les Affamés. They weren't on my obvious radar. Same goes for the 2016 award winners. Neither came close to playing in Windsor and have had little notice since.
The baseball analogy is that the Best Canadian First Feature Film is Rookie of the Year while the Best Canadian Feature Film is the Most Valuable Player. I've seen 7 MVP films since 2007 but only 1 ROY (Sleeping Giant) in that same time frame. I've only seen 3 ROYs on the whole list going back to 1997. That isn't about desire but access.
People pay attention to TIFF and its award winners. But those awards should be meaningful beyond the end of September and the GTA limits.
TIFF CEO Piers Handling was asked about which film might be Canada's submission for the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film. Handling said he didn’t think there was a clear frontrunner. "That's a bit of a mystery this year, I think. It will be a surprise for all of us."
Handling suggested Sadaf Foroughi's Ava, which captured the Discovery program prize. Other contenders were Les Affamés and the Francois Girard historical drama Hochelaga.
The Iranian leads in Ava were banned by Canada immigration authorities from coming into the country to help promote their film.
We have had back-to-back different 3-year patterns on the award. The only thing I know is that this year's entry will start a new pattern.
We talk about access to Canadian films coming out of TIFF. Netflix will show a couple of them, though Alias Grace was already destined for Netflix.
Besides a Canadian theatrical release after running in the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, The Tragically Hip final tour documentary Long Time Running will air on CTV on November 12 at 8 pm ET. The documentary film will then run on CraveTV on November 13.
The composite areas in the United States that can receive a CTV signal are significantly smaller than the reach of the CBC.
Those outside Canada will be able to watch Long Time Running on Netflix starting November 26, a nice post-Thanksgiving (U.S.) treat.
The film was the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Documentary Award.
The first 2 episodes of Alias Grace made its debut at 2017 TIFF. The show has a Netflix premiere date set for November 3. The series had to clear the CBC window before airing on Netflix. The CBC debut of the miniseries is on September 25.
"I just realized what TIFF actually stands for: Toronto Is Fucking Fantastic".@IdrisElba, giving the Festival a helpful rebrand. pic.twitter.com/nIRzhfTJG3
The language is a bit rough for some but Idris Elba is one of the coolest famous people on the planet. Toronto may not use that in its branding, but I love the idea of TIFF also representing this sentiment.
Piers Handling, the long-time head of the Toronto International Film Festival, will step down after the 2018 festival. Handling has been with the festival since 1982. When he retires, he will have been at the helm for 24 years.
Handling has lots of legacies for his time but I can't help but think of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the gorgeous behemoth of a building on the northwest corner of King Street and John Street. Even if you aren't seeing a film when you visit Toronto, go see the building. There is a bookstore in the lobby devoted to film.
The legendary Donald Sutherland will receive an honourary Oscar award at the Governors Awards on November 11. Sutherland joins French New Wave director Agnes Varda, writer-director Charles Burnett, and cinematographer Owen Roizman who will also be honoured at that ceremony.
Sutherland, 82, from Saint John, NB, has had an amazing career and is still going strong with his latest film The Leisure Seeker with Oscar-winner Helen Mirren.
Hopefully, the Oscars will make a reference to the honourary Oscars at the traditional telecast next spring.
Peter Mansbridge will anchor The National one final time on Canada Day on Saturday. But if you were wondering who will be the new anchors on the new revamped edition of The National launching on October 30.
There will be 3 hosts for the updated newscast. Jennifer McGuire, general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, says the show will be brought more into how viewers consume news in a digital world.
Wendy Mesley, Ian Hanomansing, and David Common could easily be the new hosts. If CBC does anchors in different cities, Hanomansing can stay in Vancouver and offer a West Coast base.
ABC tried a 3-headed monster in 1978 in different cities with Frank Reynolds in Washington, Max Robinson in Chicago, and Canadian Peter Jennings in London. That strategy worked until 1983 when Reynolds became ill and passed away. Robinson was reassigned and Jennings became a solo anchor from New York City in 1983.
Andrew Chang, Diana Swain, Andrew Nichols, Kim Brunhuber, Mark Kelley, and even Rosemary Barton would be other good internal candidates. Are there outside candidates who might be in the CBC mix?
Kevin Newman is the host and managing editor of the weekly investigative program W5 and fill-in anchor for CTV National News. John Roberts became the Fox News White House correspondent in 2017 and has been at Fox since 2011.
Neither is likely to leave and bringing either in would undermine those already at CBC. The taint of Fox News would make Roberts' path troublesome. Newman has been an anchor at Global so he has experience but left an anchor situation in 2010.
CTV and Global both have female national anchors. Dawna Freisen took over from Kevin Newman on the Global newscast in 2010. Lisa LaFlamme replaced Lloyd Robertson on CTV National News in 2011.
Freisen had worked at NBC News in London before coming back to Canada.
Most likely, CBC will use different anchors to try them out over the next few months. There is usually a lot of summer fill-in anchors but their presence has a higher purpose.
Mansbridge has been the anchor and chief correspondent of The National since May 2, 1988. There will be anchors on October 30, but replacing Mansbridge will be rather difficult.
We normally get a CBC summertime TV schedule release but the summer of 2017 brought no release. So we'll do something a bit different in showing off what is new in Canadian TV this summer, not just on the CBC.
The CBC release for the fall schedule noted a pair of new shows coming this summer:
Taken is a true-crime documentary 8-part series on Canada's missing and murdered Indigenous women.
21 Thunder is a 8-part series on an elite under-21 Montréal soccer team on and off the field. This show debuts on July 31.
CBC will run new episodes of 3 summer shows.
Baroness von Sketch Show (starting June 27)
Still Standing (starting June 27)
When Calls the Heart (starting June 18)
When Calls the Heart airs on the Hallmark Channel in the United States.
For fans in the United States, especially outside the CBC feed, IFC will run seasons 1 and 2 of the Baroness von Sketch Show beginning August 2.
We are thrilled to see Carolyn Taylor, Meredith MacNeill, Aurora Browne, and Jennifer Whalen back for another summer of their sketch comedy, now in both countries.
The next few weeks offers up some Canada Day type programming:
Becoming Canadian is a 6-part documentary on the stories of people who become new Canadian citzens. Canadian rapper and producer Kardinal Offishall supplies the narration. The show debuts with back-to-back episodes on June 26 at 8 pm local time. The show runs single episodes on June 28 and June 29, both at 8 pm followed by the final 2 episodes on June 30, also at 8 pm.
The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration gets a rebroadcast on CBC on June 24 at 8 pm local time except for 9 pm in the Maritimes and 9:30 pm in Newfoundland. Unlike last August's live telecast, the rebroadcast looks to be limited to CBC television. I can't shake last year's concert, even watching it on YouTube in the United States. Very powerful and meaningful.
Canada in a Day is a 2-hour summary of 16,818 videos shot on September 10, 2016 on the lives of Canadians. The videos are in more than 15 languages so the subtitles people will have plenty of work. The videos were shot in Canada and 22 other countries for those Canadians away from the country on that specific date. The debut on CTV and CTV Two will be June 25 at 8 pm. There will be Canada Day airings as well.
The Great Canadian Baking Show will be a part of the CBC lineup this fall, but the public broadcaster will run the most recent season of the British series, The Great British Baking Show, starting August 23.
Despite our limited take, if you do have access to a CBC station, look over the guide to see what else may pop up on the schedule. If we get better information, we will update this story.
You Gotta Eat Here is done after 5 seasons on Food Network Canada. The episodes ran in the United States on the Biography channel for awhile, but not lately. John Catucci would spotlight 3 restaurants and their specialties around Canada.
I enjoyed the light-hearted format and presentation, much better than the program is often compared to, the Canadian version of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I admit I was confused about the making of burgers that often involved bread crumbs and other meatloaf ingredients. Turns out that when you are legally obligated to overcook the meat, you have to introduce ingredients to try and give moisture to the burger.
The series did win a pair of Canadian Screen Awards in 2014 for Best Lifestyle or Talk Program or Series and Best Direction in a Lifestyle/Practical Information Program or Series.
I would love to see a U.S. channel bring us more episodes of You Gotta Eat Here. You can just fast-forward through the burger preparations.
Day 2 of Live with Kelly and Ryan could not possibly top Day 1 for Canadian content. Monday's show at the Oakes Garden Theatre had two of the hottest (in more ways than one) Canadians right now. But let's see how the show's Canadian content.
Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest spent part of the open talking about how dreamy Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Monday's interview. Seacrest went on more about Trudeau's eyes than even Ripa did. You could imagine Regis Philbin saying the same words in a way that was more funny. I don't know much about Seacrest, and he is new to the show, but his approach is not as clear to your humble narrator.
Ripa and Seacrest tried on funny Canadian hats, something that was reminiscent of the show's time in Banff, Alberta in 2012. I will absolutely agree that Ripa looks good in all different kinds of hats. She can sell the comedy in a silly hat really well.
Howie Mandel came into the interview with a pair of RCMP officers. He made the rather funny joke about the Mounties always getting their man-del.
Ripa and Seacrest played up Mandel's Canadian background. Mandel grew up in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and often went down to Niagara Falls as a young adult.
Nathan Fillion grew up in Canada, specifically Edmonton. But Live with Kelly and Ryan went well out of their way not to play that up. Ripa and Seacrest mentioned Mandel's Canadian roots but not Fillion's roots. Seacrest mentioned in a question that Fillion grew up in Canada but not near Niagara Falls. Fillion did point out that this was his first trip to Niagara Falls.
The show is on Canadian soil. You have a Canadian star. You talked about Saskatchewan with Tatiana Maslany in a segment that lasted less than 3½ minutes. This was a missed opportunity by the show.
What came across as more of a way to get companies to pay for the birthday celebration of Kelly's son Michael might have been a subtle presentation on the differences between being a young adult in Canada versus the United States.
Michael Consuelos, Ripa's oldest child, just turned 20. His weekend included gambling at the Fallsview Casino (more on that later) and drinking at the Two Sisters Vineyards at Niagara-on-the-Lake. These are activities Michael can do in Ontario but not the United States. "My son is legal to drink in your country," Ripa said about Michael being able to drink in Canada. She might be unaware but the drinking age in Canada is 19, except for the provinces where the age is 18: Quebec, Alberta, and Manitoba. Ripa was in Banff, Alberta in 2012 but might not have paid attention to the drinking age in that province.
Fallsview Casino runs some pretty clever ads. I haven't included them in the wrapups from the NHL Center Ice and MLB Extra Innings preview mostly because they were regional ads in a part of Canada where you can literally see the U.S. from your room. And yes, I would feel that way about a business in Windsor.
Turns out the show stayed at the Fallsview Casino hotel property. Presumably, Michael gambled at the Fallsview Casino. The morning trivia game the show plays gave away a trip on Tuesday to the Fallsview Casino property.
They tried to give away a showcase on Monday to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa but the contestant couldn't come up with the answer. The Ottawa package was valued at $6000 while the Niagara Falls package was valued at $4200.
If I run across a particularly clever Fallsview ad next fall, I will consider running one in the preview wrapup.
Tatiana Maslany didn't even get 3½ minutes on Live with Kelly and Ryan, but we did learn that Maslany and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met for the first time at the live broadcast from the Oakes Garden Theatre in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Maslany also set straight the pronunciation of Saskatchewan to Kelly Ripa and talked about growing up in her native province in Regina. Maslany talked about the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the cut-out watermelons the fans wear on their heads. She was asked about where the Emmy was; Maslany explained that the award was in a box.
Ripa asked which one of the Orphan Black characters that Maslany least liked to play. Maslany mentioned that Rachel takes about 2 hours of hair and makeup and Krystal involves fake nails and "all this stuff on top of me." Maslany said she stole some of the clothes as well as Cosima's glasses and nose ring as souvenirs from the show.
Prime Minister Trudeau was a last-minute add to the program and ended up with a pair of segments. The daytime talk show is not normally hard-hitting but Ryan Seacrest asked Trudeau about which one of his kids would he like to see be a prime minister.
"Definitely not. My father would have given the same answer." When Ripa followed up on the same question, Trudeau said "not a chance" but then responded, "Although I will say, I have one daughter and there is something very special about imagining a woman prime minister. I think it’s long overdue. I just don’t think we have to wait that long. I think it should be sooner than that."
Canada freaked out over the fact that Trudeau didn't mention Kim Campbell, who served as the prime minister from June 25-November 4, 1993. Even though Campbell was not elected, I'm with those who freaked out. Given how the 2016 U.S. election went, knowing of a female leader on North American soil is something the U.S. audience should know.
"Of course the PM did not forget that Kim Campbell was prime minister," Trudeau’s press secretary Andrée-Lynne Halle wrote in an email. "Now that was almost 25 years ago — I think we can all agree we’re overdue after 25 years!"
Trudeau was asked about the balance given recent terrorism attacks. His answer was similar to previous responses to similar questions. But I really liked the ending. "That balance — defending our security and keeping us Canadian — is what people expect of me. And I'm always going to do both of those things."
The Niagara Falls segments were centred around the falls on both sides. Seacrest became the sacrificial lamb for the segments.
The taped segments took place in the sunshine over the weekend. The live show had clouds as will Tuesday's taped show, which was taped on Monday. Tuesday's show will be the final one from Canada on this trip.
Live with Kelly and Ryan airs on CTV in Canada and syndication in the United States.
The show that is now Live with Kelly and Ryan has a rich legacy of doing shows in Canada. Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa went to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 2010 and Ripa and various co-hosts were in Banff, Alberta in 2012.
The show goes back to Niagara Falls, Ontario next week for a pair of shows. Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford were there in 1996. Philbin and Ripa made a visit there in 2006.
Ryan Seacrest was recently named the new co-host of the daytime program.
The shows will take place at the Oakes Garden Theatre. Monday's show will air live with Tuesday's show being taped on Monday.
In terms of Canadian content for the shows, Tatiana Maslany will be the primary guest on Monday's show. They will definitely be talking about Season 5 of Orphan Black, which debuts Saturday. Tuesday's show will feature Canadian actors Howie Mandel and Nathan Fillion.
We haven't seen any of the previous Niagara Falls episodes. We know that the 2010 and 2012 tours were filled with fun Canadian content. With Niagara Falls being so close to the border, hopefully we will still get plenty of Canadian content. The Canadian guests should help out, though Mandel is the one who grew up near the area in nearby Toronto.
Schitt's Creek concludes its 3rd season on Pop TV tonight. Canadians and select Americans got the season finale last night on CBC. Schitt's Creek has been renewed for a 4th season on CBC and Pop TV. Though the Pop TV viewers struggle to get the show in HD, having the 3rd season in sync has been an absolute joy. In past years, CBC promos would talk about an episode that would air weeks later in the United States.
The show has clearly let the characters grow within the premise of living in this town. The show is character-driven and those characters get to stretch. Stevie doesn't have the laid-back experience of previous seasons. Moira has found the city council has opportunities. David is taking over the general store and maybe finding love. Alexis is back in high school. Johnny has been helping/bugging Stevie in running the motel.
Season 4 has great potential, though Americans still want that HD feed.
X Company reached its series finale on March 15. The program ended after 3 seasons on the CBC. The show, based in the real-life Camp X in between Whitby and Oshawa, Ontario. The camp trained covert agents in the methods required for success in clandestine operations. The camp even included Americans before the U.S. officially got onto WWII. A similar camp in the United States was built after the Americans got into the war; Camp X was the inspiration for that camp.
The program was shown in a number of countries. The Canadian-Hungarian production was shown in France, Latin America, Japan, Turkey, Iceland, the Middle East, Greece, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. A spy thriller with young, good-looking actors involving World War II in English; Americans wouldn't watch something like that. #sarcasm
We also had a soft spot for this show since Évelyne Brochu was one of the stars. Her shooting schedule, often in Hungary, reduced her Orphan Black appearances in recent seasons. There shouldn't have been any conflicts with Brochu in Season 5 of Orphan Black.
Speaking of Orphan Black, the final season debuts June 10 on Space in Canada and BBC America in the United States.
We already know that This Life is done after 2 seasons on CBC. The show was adapted from Radio Canada’s Nouvelle Adresse and set in Montréal. The French language version is still on the air, also having started a year before the English language version.
19-2 will have its final season on Bravo this summer.
Saving Hope on CTV is also not coming back. The show ran 5 seasons on CTV and will have its series finale later this spring. NBC carried the first season of the show, though the network only ran 11 of the 13 episodes in that season. Season 5 is currently running on Ion Television in the United States.
What Would Sal Do? is getting a second life on Crave TV after Bell Media rescued the program from SuperChannel.
We would need a therapist to figure out whether Michael: Every Day was an aberration or will the show see new life beyond the 6 episodes this season. The Sunday night timeslot didn't seem a good fit. Even if the show is reduced to a summer series, the program deserves a spot to continue.
The deal with the new Anne series on CBC is that the show will run on Netflix. We know the Netflix debut is May 12 and will be available globally.
CBC has aired 4 of the 8 episodes on Sunday nights. The Stanley Cup playoffs may push off the rest of the schedule a bit.
We've been hearing good things about the adaptation. Moira Walley-Beckett had a track record that would take Anne in a new direction: she worked as a writer and producer on Breaking Bad and created the drama Flesh and Bone.
When I told people I was traveling to Prince Edward Island, I heard a lot of memories of Anne of Green Gables. I hope the U.S. audience takes advantage to see this update on a classic.
We have bemoaned the lack of a late-night Canadian talk show on Canadian television. One thing missing on both sides of the border is a late-night show that doesn't bow down to the latest project by the artist. But we may have found something that is pretty close on both accounts, even if that isn't on television.
Steve Patterson is the host of the The Smartass-ociatesstreaming online through the CBC Web site. The show involves experts matched up with comics and they discuss various topics with Patterson as the moderator.
There is an appetite for relevant and funny late night content on Canadian TV. If online is the place for experimentation, let's see what kind of talent is out there.
You might remember that the 2016 MLS season was rather successful for Canadian-based teams in the East. But you wouldn't know that from the U.S. TV schedule for the 2017 MLS season.
Toronto FC narrowly lost the 2016 MLS Cup. The Reds had 5 appearances, one of those being a late-season addition with the game against Montréal. As a reward for making the MLS Cup and coming thisclose to winning it all, Toronto FC has 4 appearances, one against Montréal. Sad.
Montréal Impact made the final 4 and might have been the most exciting team in the MLS playoffs. The Impact had 3 scheduled appearances. The team lost a telecast but gained one back against Toronto FC. As a reward for making the final 4, the Impact have 1 telecast in 2017 and that is against Toronto FC. Mindblowing.
Vancouver Whitecaps finished 8th in the Western Conference, 7 points out of a playoff spot. Like the Impact, the Whitecaps went from 3 telecasts to 1.
Univison and UniMas still has a national contract in Espanol but no Canadian teams are on their schedules.
I get that the teams are Canadian and that even if Toronto FC had beaten Seattle, the Sounders are more popular. Hopefully, the MLS will add late-season games featuring Canadian teams, especially if they are doing well.
Americans who have access to CTV, and we know there aren't that many of you, will be able to see some early season MLS telecasts.
2017 Canadian MLS teams on CTV
Date
Game
Time
March 18
Toronto FC @ Vancouver
4p
April 1
Montréal @ Chicago
3p
April 15
Atlanta @ Montréal
1p
April 22
Vancouver @ Portland
4p
April 29
Vancouver @ Montréal
3p
May 6
Toronto FC @ Seattle
4p
May 13
Minnesota @ Toronto FC
3p
All times Eastern.
CTV has more games with Canadian teams than ESPN and Fox Sports 1 and the CTV schedule stops on May 13. The CTV games have 3 appearances for each Canadian team. The only duplicate with the U.S. schedule is the 2016 MLS Cup rematch in Seattle.
TSN will carry the rest of the Toronto FC and Vancouver games and 9 Montréal Impact games. TVA Sports takes over the French-language rights and will have all the Impact games en Francaise.
Toronto FC starts on the road for the first 3 games. The home opener is March 31 against Sporting Kansas City at BMO Field on Fox Sports 1. Montréal opens on the road and then plays its only game at Olympic Stadium on March 11. The outdoor home opener at Stade Saputo is April 15. Vancouver opens its home season at B.C. Place on March 5.
