The Canadian Football League’s first game on CTV since 1986 did not produce an increase in television viewership as expected.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders traveled to Winnipeg for the Banjo Bowl on Saturday, which kicked off on TV at 3 p.m. EDT. The Blue Bombers won 26-21 in a game that did not have a winner decided until inside the final minute but the average television audience was over 100,000 viewers smaller than last year’s edition.
Last year, the annual Labour Day rematch aired on TSN and drew 688,100 eyeballs across the country. That means Saturday’s matchup between prairie rivals was down over 17 percent year-over-year. In 2022, the game produced 656,500 viewers, while 550,900 watched in 2021.
CTV first broadcasted three-down league games in 1961 and first aired the Grey Cup in 1962. TSN began airing CFL games in 1987 after CTV no longer had the broadcast rights.
Friday Night Football’s matchup between the B.C. Lions and Alouettes combined English and French rating beat the Toronto Blue Jays (524,600) and the Green Bay Packers versus Philadelphia Eagles game (568,800), which was played in Brazil.
The Riders and Bombers’ rivalry match topped the Blue Jays game on Saturday (554,900), though the University of Texas win over the University of Michigan pulled in more viewership (68,000) on Fox 29 as the Banjo Bowl on CTV Toronto (23,000).
Sunday Night Football on TSN posted the highest sports rating over the weekend as 894,800 tuned in to watch the Los Angeles Rams lose in Detroit to the Lions.
2024 Week 14 TV ratings
Friday
B.C. at Montreal — 458,200 TSN and 243,500 RDS (701,700 total)
Saturday
Toronto at Ottawa — 253,300 TSN
Saskatchewan at Winnipeg — 571,000 CTV
Calgary at Edmonton — 488,100 TSN
Total average: 442,650 (French included: 503,525)
