After that deep, thrilling, if ultimately heartbreaking playoff run by the Toronto Blue Jays on Sportsnet, including a seven game run in the World Series, TSN needed a big win of their own. They got at least one game’s worth Sunday as English Canadian viewers once again got into the Grey Cup.
When you add the TSN tally (3,283,000 average minute viewers) to the take on CTV (1,360,000) an overnight, estimated 4,643,000 viewers in english Canada watched the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Montreal Alouettes in the 112th Grey Cup. With Montreal in the game, francophone viewers in Quebec watching on RDS surely pushed the all-Canada total over the five million mark.
While the World Series games each averaged more viewers (eventually topping 10M across Canada for Game Seven), that 4.64M CFL score compares favourably to just about any game last spring in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Grey Cup did not have much competition on broadcast and cable Sunday night. An NFL game on CTV2 between Detroit and Philly drew one tenth the audience at 446,000 overnight viewers. Top show that night on Global was 60 Minutes ticking off 369,000. Out west, 240,000 watched an afternoon NHL tilt on Sportsnet between the Canucks and Tampa Bay. The Simpsons did 226,000 on City, while The Great Canadian Baking Show rose to 213,000 on CBC.
Last year’s Grey Cup game, won by the Toronto Argonauts over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, did slightly better than Sunday’s overnight tally. That 2024 CFL championship drew an overnight, estimated combined audience of 4.9 million, 3.39M on TSN and 1.5M+ on CTV.
