Labour Day hangover: Week 14 CFL television ratings dip after standout September holiday weekend

Photo: Neil Noonan/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

Triple-headers just ain’t it for the Canadian Football League.

While the idea of approximately nine straight hours of football seems fun, it’s a long time for fans to set aside in one day. Credit the league office and TSN for creating a schedule that only has one week with three games in one day, although it clearly brought average television ratings down in Week 14.

Saturday’s 1 p.m. eastern time kickoff between the Alouettes and Argonauts had the smallest audience English TV audience on TSN since the 2023 season-opener when the Lions beat the Stampeders 25-15 with just 226,900 tuned in. It was also the lowest number for a Montreal game on French-language RDS this season.

Week 13
RDS 173,800

Week 12
RDS 178,300

Week 11
RDS 206,600

Week 10
RDS 179,600

Week 9
RDS 142,100

Week 8
RDS 246,000

Week 7 — bye

Week 6
RDS 169,900

Week 5
RDS 215,500

Week 4
RDS 200,600

Week 3
RDS 210,000

Week 2 — bye

Week 1
RDS 174,000

People in the 25-54 age demographic were not into the early afternoon start time as less than 100,000 in that category watched: SSK-WPG 248,300; CGY-EDM 213,500; HAM-OTT 135,600; MTL-TOR 96,300.

The Blue Jays went head-to-head with the Tiger-Cats and Redblacks on Friday night, recording 969,200 average viewers. Saturday the Jays brought in 813,300 for Sportsnet with a first pitch at 3:07 p.m. ET.

Sunday Night Football on TSN drew 775,800.

2023 Week 14 TV ratings:

Friday
Hamilton at Ottawa — 373,300

Saturday
Montreal at Toronto — TSN 248,000 and RDS 119,900 for 367,900 total
Saskatchewan at Winnipeg — 688,100
Calgary at Edmonton — 686,700

Total Week 14 average: 499,025 (French included: 529,000)