Make the final! Rauter is Canada’s curling voice
Fans say they love his commentary
Vic Rauter has become the voice of curling in Canada.
According to TSN ratings, more than 13.7 million Canadians tuned in to watch some of the network’s extensive curling coverage last season, with an average primetime audience of 561,000.
The most-watched curling event last season on TSN was the 2013 world men’s championship, with 1.1 million viewers. Coming in at No. 2 was the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s final at one million, followed by the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s final at 894,000. That’s a lot of people.
Rauter, who has anchored TSN’s curling coverage for more than 20 years, will be in Montreal for the next week as the Scotties Tournament of Hearts comes to the city for the first time in its 32-year history. The Canadian women’s championship was held once before in Montreal, in 1979, before taking on the Scotties title.
While curling draws huge ratings for TSN across the country, Montreal — and Quebec, for that matter — is not known as a curling hotbed, and it will be interesting to see how many people show up at the Maurice Richard Arena. French television coverage of the Scotties will be on RDS2.
“The only other time I can remember being in Quebec was 1988 for the Brier in Chicoutimi-Jonquière,” Rauter recalled this week from his home in Orillia, Ont. “It was difficult.” Rauter added that there are a couple of skips who could have drawing power in Montreal: Quebec’s Allison Ross, who plays out of the Glenmore Curling Club, and defending champion Rachel Homan, who is from the Ottawa Curling Club and will skip Team Canada.
“Some of her Ottawa fans will make the drive down, so we’ll see what happens,” Rauter said.
“I hate to guess,” Rauter added as far as attendance figures, “because we just came back from Las Vegas (where the Continental Cup was played) and they thought if they could get 1,500 people they’d be doing well. Well, they got 4,500. Altogether different, I grant you that, but we’ll wait and see. If the games turn out well, if the right teams progress, I think we can have pretty good crowds.”
No matter how many fans are in the seats in Montreal, there will be lots of people across the country tuning in to watch on TSN. And they aren’t all necessarily curlers.
“The nicest compliment I can get is somebody coming up and saying, ‘Hi, we love your commentary,’ ” Rauter said. “I say, ‘Thank you very much, where do you curl?’ And they say, ‘We don’t. We just enjoy watching it on TV.’”
What would attract non-curlers to watch?
“I think the microphones … it may be one of the few, if not the only sport that takes you inside the game with the microphone (on players discussing strategy, etc.),” Rauter said. “Because everything you hear at a hockey game, everything you hear in a football game, is always post … it’s always after the fact. I think that’s a big part of it.”
Rauter added that curling’s popularity has increased since the sport made its Olympic debut at Nagano in 1998.
“I think that’s part of it,” he said. “I think TV has played a big part in that, but I think people are just fascinated ... how the heck do they throw it 160 feet and get it to go around that stone and land where they want?”
There will be some good storylines to follow at this year’s tournament. Homan was part of Team North America’s victory at the Continental Cup last month in Las Vegas, while 20-year-old Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse will make history as the youngest skip ever to compete at the Scotties. Another rookie skip, 22-year-old Kesa van Osch of Victoria, knocked off former Canadian and world champion Kelly Scott in the B.C. provincial final.
“We still see (Homan) wearing her emotions on her sleeve, and I think sometimes
“If the games turn out well … I think we can have pretty good crowds.” TSN BROADCASTER VIC RAUTER
that is a bother for her and that can be a detriment,” Rauter said. “We saw it a little bit at the Roar of the Rings.”
Homan lost 10-4 to Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh in the semifinals at the Roar of the Rings in December, while Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones won the tournament and will represent Canada at the Sochi Olympics.
While professional athletes earn millions, curling is basically a part-time job for the best players. And Rauter believes that’s another reason why the sport is so appealing to television viewers.
“These are semi-pros in some respect … for the most part, it’s a pretty expensive hobby, very few make money at it,” Rauter said. “The glory still comes in the win. I think that the fact the players are humble, down-to-earth kind of people … Joe Everyman … I think that is a big part of it. I think it’s just the fact that these people are able to do what they do and they do it for the love … they truly do it for the love of the game. The incentive is to become a Can- adian champion and then represent the country at the worlds.”
And Rauter has a message for sports fans who might mock curling or simply find it boring.
“Come to it, watch it … see it,” he said. “Don’t poo-poo it. Give it some respect.
“People ask me sometimes what’s my favourite sport? And I say it has to be the sport that I’m doing, and I’ve done cricket, I’ve done ringette … at that moment it’s the most important thing to me. I never dismiss another person’s sport because it’s important to some people.”
Rauter, who has been at TSN since 1985, was inducted into the Curling Hall of Fame in 2006.
“That was quite the honour,” he said.
“It’s like an athlete … you don’t do this for that kind of honour, but certainly it’s appreciated to be recognized like that. What can I tell you? I’m doing a job which I truly love and to be recognized, that was indeed special.”
It’s impossible to interview Rauter without asking him about his trademark “Make the final!” call at the end of big games.
“You know what? That started actually during my CBC days and I don’t know why … I really don’t,” he said.
“It was something I said one night quite innocently and it stuck.”
Rauter added that he’s careful now not to overuse the line “because it can be just a little bit too much,” saying he’ll pick his spots at the Scotties.
“It’s humbling when you’re in a town and they hold up a sign that says ‘Make the final!’ or they hold up a sign that says ‘Count ’em up!’” he said. “As I say, I never would have expected this, but the game has been good to me … it truly has.”