A tale of two adjoining countries

Canada:

The Canada-U.S. men's gold medal hockey game Sunday was the most-watched television broadcast in Canada history — attracting an average audience of 16.6 million viewers, the CTV-Rogers broadcast consortium announced today.

A whopping 80 per cent of the Canadian population — about 26.5 million viewers — watched at least some part of the game

The United States:

The Canada-U.S.A. gold medal hockey game was seen by a huge audience of 27.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched hockey game on American television since the famous U.S. upset over the Soviet Union in 1980.

That's a huge number for a Saturday afternoon in the United States, just huge. But it's about 8 percent of the population.

50 percent surging up to 80 percent vs. 8 percent* ... that's how much it meant to Canada.


(*note that 8 percent is about 18 rating tuned to the game)

I don't know if any event other than 9/11, the first moon landing, or the Kennedy Assassination had 80% viewership...and, of course, that was spread out amongst several channels, even amongst the older events.