Numbers on the 99th Grey Cup

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The 100th Grey Cup is being played today in Toronto featuring the Toronto Argonauts and is expecting a large TV audience in Canada's biggest television market. Last year, the match took place in Vancouver with 4.6 million viewers staring at television screens across the country. Here are some other figures from last year Grey Cup final, as per TSN's press release:

The GREY CUP continues to be one of the biggest celebrations and television events in Canada. Preliminary overnight data from BBM Canada confirms that an average audience of 4.6 million viewers watched the BC Lions win the 99th GREY CUP last night on TSN and RDS with a convincing 34-23 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at BC Place. It was the most-watched television program of the week in Canada and the most-watched sports program of the broadcast year.

Overall, more than 11 million Canadians, or more than 1 in 3 Canadians, tuned in to watch some or all of last night’s broadcast on TSN and RDS. In the Vancouver Market, more than half the population watched some of the game, while 65% of people watching television viewed the 99th GREY CUP.

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Audience Breakout
• The 99th GREY CUP becomes the fourth most-watched GREY CUP game on record.* The 98th Grey Cup had an audience of 6.1 million viewers on TSN and RDS.

• The audience for the 99th GREY CUP peaked at 5.8 million viewers in the fourth quarter as the BC Lions wrapped up the victory.

• TSN’s 99th GREY CUP average audience of 4.4 million viewers ranks as the fifth highest audience ever recorded for the network.

• In the Vancouver Extended Market the game recorded an impressive 29.3 Rating. More than 1.9 million viewers tuned in for some of the game, representing more than half of the population.

Certainly, the fact that the game took place in Vancouver and that one of the teams competing was the BC Lions were positive factors in attracting an impressive number of viewers in Vancouver. One might expect a similar outcome for Toronto viewers in this year's final.

In Vancouver, Nickelback performed during halftime. For the 100th anniversary, Canada's big name artists are showing up including Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Gordon Lightfoot, Marianas Trench, who are all scheduled to perform. Considering the popularity of these artists and the anniversary championship game being played in Canada's largest city with its home team involved, we could see a record breaking number of viewers, even if the score is heavily lopsided by halftime.