CFL ratings on the rise
Thu, September 8, 2005
TORONTO -- CFL audiences continue to rise for the silent treatment.
Mired in a labour dispute, the CBC's Labour Day contest between Edmonton and Calgary drew a season best 584,000. That's up from 580,000 (Aug. 27, Saskatchewan versus B.C.) and 449,000 (Aug. 20, Toronto versus Edmonton).
All three games aired without CBC announcers.
The big ratings winner on the weekend was TSN, which drew a network record average audience of 791,000 for Hamilton's 33-30 win over Toronto on Labour Day evening. The previous TSN high was 573,000 for a game between B.C. and Calgary on Oct. 27, 2002. TSN has been broadcasting CFL games since 1986.
CBC, which has locked out 5,500 members of the Canadian Media Guild, including on-air sports staff, was originally scheduled to carry the Hamilton-Toronto game, but handed it off to TSN because of a lack of manpower.
The Toronto-Hamilton audience peaked at 1.25 million viewers during the last 12 minutes of the game.
CBC's telecast of the Eskimos-Stamps game peaked at 759,000 viewers. The average for the same game last year was 548,000. TSN says its national average over its first 30 games this season is 382,000 per game, a 34% increase over 2004 when the network had an average of 286,000 per game. <!-- Next and Previous stories -->
So ratings have been consistently rising ever since the CBC announcers and techs went on strike. Maybe the NFL don't need no Madden no more.