There was no joy in Steeltown as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats fell short in the Grey Cup for the second straight year, but the CFL’s annual championship game was another ratings bonanza for TSN and its French-language sister station RDS.
The 102nd Grey Cup attracted an average of 4.1 million viewers 2+ on the two specialty services, according to preliminary numbers from Numeris, down slightly from 4.5 million for the 2013 Grey Cup.
The telecast became the 16th program in TSN history to average more than 3 million viewers, a group that includes the past six Grey Cup games. The halftime show featuring Imagine Dragons attracted an average audience of 3.45 million viewers, while an average of 1.8 million people watched TSN’s post-game coverage.
In total, more than 10 million unique viewers watched part of the game, which saw a penalty erase what could have been a stirring Tiger-Cats comeback in an eventual 20-16 loss to the Calgary Stampeders. The audience peaked at 5.1 million late in game.
It was the highest rated program of the year in the Calgary extended market, with nearly two thirds of city’s population watching at least a portion of the game.
Several companies including Nissan, GMC, Wendy’s, NAPA, SiriusXM Canada and Mark’s were among the advertisers in the annual game. TSN and RDS became the exclusive broadcasters of the CFL and the Grey Cup in 2008.
