The Saskatchewan Roughriders' 45-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Sunday's Grey Cup produced a 17% drop in audience for TSN from last year, with the game "averaging 4.5 million viewers," according to Chris Zelkovich of YAHOO SPORTS CANADA. Despite the loss in viewers from last year, Sunday's game was the "most-watched sports program of the year and the fourth-largest Grey Cup audience ever." Audience levels "peaked at 5.5 million in the second quarter, dropped to 4.2 million during the half-time show, and never recovered." With the game "all but decided after 30 minutes, a lot of viewers decided to go elsewhere." Still, more than 2 million viewers "hung around to watch the post-game celebrations -- a number that made it the second most-watched sports event of the week." Only the "early Hockey Night In Canada games (2.3 million) did better." Last year's audience for the 100th Grey Cup was 5.4 million, but that was "a much closer game and with the Toronto Argonauts involved it drew a lot more interest in Southern Ontario" (CA.SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/25). The Grey Cup record of 6.1 million viewers was set in '09 when the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Roughriders 28-27. That game was "played shortly after the introduction of a new ratings measurement system that has seen sports TV ratings skyrocket" (CP, 11/25).
