The CFL enjoyed another strong weekend on television ahead of the 110th Grey Cup in Hamilton.
English-language ratings for the East Final between the Montreal Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts increased by 43 percent from 629,000 in 2022 to 899,400 in 2023. The growth came despite the matchup being the same as last year’s East Final, though the result was different as Montreal upset the 16-win Argos by a score of 38-17.
This year’s East Final was the highest-rated edition of the game since 2017 when the Saskatchewan Roughriders visited Toronto, drawing an audience of 1,406,000. In 2021, a television audience of 846,000 tuned in to watch the Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat the Argos by a score of 27-19 to advance to the Grey Cup at home.
The game also performed well on RDS, TSN’s French-language affiliate, drawing an audience of 448,900. In total, 1,348,300 Canadians watched the East Final on television in one of our country’s two official languages. Attendance for the game also spiked by 24.8 percent as the Toronto Argonauts drew a crowd of 26,620 to BMO Field on Saturday after bringing in 21,331 fans in 2022.
The ratings for the West Final dipped by 12.8 percent from 1,200,000 in 2022 to 1,046,000 in 2023. The game saw the Winnipeg Blue Bombers advance to a fourth-straight Grey Cup with a 24-13 win over the B.C. Lions. Despite the drop, TSN’s ratings for the East and West Finals were still up overall by 6.4 percent from last year.
Hockey Night in Canada drew an audience of 2,046,800 during the 7:00 p.m. EST timeslot as the Vancouver Canucks visited the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins played the Montreal Canadiens, and the Calgary Flames went to the nation’s capital to take on the Ottawa Senators. An audience of 745,700 tuned in for 10:00 p.m. EST timeslot as the Edmonton Oilers played the Seattle Kraken.
