TSN Draws One Of The Lowest Audiences In Grey Cup History
TSN’s first CFL Grey Cup telecast on Sunday drew “one of the lowest television audiences" in the game's history, according to William Houston of the GLOBE & MAIL. The 2.439 million people who watched the Calgary Stampeders defeat the Montreal Alouettes 22-14 marks the Cup’s “second-worst TV audience” since ’89, and is down 37% from the CBC’s 3.337 million viewers a year ago. Houston notes TSN, a cable channel, “couldn’t match the broadcast distribution of the CBC, which is available in 13 million households compared with TSN’s nine million.” The audience, “though poor by Grey Cup standards, was substantial for TSN. But it wasn’t close to a record” (GLOBE & MAIL, 11/25). In Toronto, Chris Zelkovich writes the Grey Cup game was a “big hit in French Canada, but not so much in the rest of the country and certainly not in Ontario.” An average of 3.65 million viewers watched the game on TSN and French-language net RDS, a 5% increase over what the CBC and RDS drew together last year. RDS, which is in 2.6 million homes, “attracted the largest football audience in its history with 1.2 million viewers” (TORONTO STAR, 11/25). In Winnipeg, Paul Friesen writes, “TSN could easily have placed the game on CTV -- they’re owned by the same company. That’s what they’ll do with the Super Bowl.” Friesen: “Occasionally, TSN still treats the CFL like a second-class citizen” (WINNIPEG SUN, 11/25).
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The Crew's First Championship Earned
A 5.8/11 Overnight In Columbus |
MLS CUP RATINGS: USA TODAY’s Michael Hiestand writes of Sunday's Crew-Red Bulls MLS Cup final drawing a 0.7 overnight rating, “For anything to draw less than 1% of U.S. TV households on a broadcast network in a time slot when lots of people are watching is almost impossible.” However, MLS’ title game “hasn’t drawn 1% of households since 1997. That suggests there are limits to ABC/ESPN’s vaunted hype machine, and confirms this trend remains intact: As a spectator sport in America, soccer is the sport of the future -- and always will be” (USA TODAY, 11/25). Sunday’s MLS Cup drew a 5.8/11 overnight rating on WSYX-ABC in Columbus. In comparison, Sunday’s Texans-Browns game earned a 14.2/29 on WBNS-CBS, and WTTE-Fox’ coverage of Giants-Cardinals drew a 10.8/19 (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 11/25).
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