Yesterday the CFL held its final two matchups before the 108th Grey Cup. The first game of the afternoon saw the Hamilton Tiger-Cats come back from behind to defeat the Toronto Argonauts. With that win, Hamilton will now have home field advantage in next weeks Championship. There was some other controversies that stemmed from the loss.
After the game a Ticats fan allegedly spit his beer in one of the Argos players faces. This led to an altercation in the stands, but we don’t want that to take away from the great performance we saw from both teams.
The late game had the Winnipeg Blue Bombers edged out the Saskatchewan Roughriders to extend their season and stamp their ticket to the Grey Cup.
But… how many people tuned in?
Well, thankfully we have an answer. Adam Seaborn reports that the CFL Eastern final drew 846,000 viewers, and the Western Final brought in a solid 1.346M viewers.
Sports TV Ratings 🇨🇦
Dec 5
🏈CFL Western Final: 1.346M (TSN)
🏒Leafs/Jets: 878k (TSN4/TSN3)
🏈CFL Eastern Final: 846k (TSN)
🏈SNF Football: 622k (TSN/CTV2)
🏈NFL Late: 564 (CTV)
🏁Saudi GP: 528k (TSN)
🏀Raps/Wizards: 402k (TSN)
🏈NFL Early: 274k (CTV)
🏒Kings/Oilers: 245k (SNW)— Adam Seaborn (@AHBSeaborn) December 6, 2021
Naturally, this is great news for the CFL. Starting out the year it wasn’t sure if they’d hit the field. Prior to this season they missed their entire 2020 season due to COVID, and they were already having financial issues.
Fast forward to 2021 and for all intents and purposes, it seems like things are going well for the league.
Furthermore, the CFL Western Final was the 2nd highest rated sports event televised Sunday, sitting only behind Hockey Night in Canada.
CFL Western Final was the #2 highest rated sport on TV behind only HNIC
HNIC of course has the benefit of the CBC signal while CFL is exclusively on TSN
— Adam Seaborn (@AHBSeaborn) December 6, 2021
Again, if I was a league executive, this is exactly what I’d want to see. Additionally, it’s promising to have some strong numbers prior to your biggest game of the season.
With the Eastern and Western Finals we turn our attention to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where the Tiger-Cats will have a home team advantage over the Blue Bombers. Will it be enough, only time will tell.
The 108th Grey Cup will be televised Dec. 12th in Canada on TSN as usual, but fans in the United States will be able to tune in on ESPN2 or ESPN+.
Who do you think will win this years Grey Cup; the Winnipeg Blue Bombers or the Hamilton Tiger-Cats? Let us know down in the comments below or join the conversation on Discord.
