The Eh Game blog has the Canadian sports television ratings for the past weekend, which includes the Thanksgiving games. The two Thanksgiving games were third and fourth overall, with the Hamilton Toronto game receiving 956,000 viewers making it the top CFL game of the week. Both teams have trouble drawing fans to their stadiums in Southern Ontario, however those teams can do well in the ratings when it is an important game (and when nothing else is on the television due to the holiday). Considering the value of the Argos for television ratings (and maybe the Ticats), the league might want to pony up some cash for a new stadium. The NFL regularly helps out teams with stadium costs.
The 956,000 number on TSN is also respectable compared to the second place Canucks Habs game at 1,374,000, especially considering that more people can watch CBC (potentially without cable) than TSN.
The Eskimos and Riders game had a respectable 778,000 viewers for the earlier Thanksgiving game, for fourth place which actually seems a bit low for a Rider game, although Edmonton is now out of it.
The Bombers and Alouettes was the third ranked CFL game and sixth overall with 686,000. I'm not sure whether this includes RDS or not. The Lions Stamps game was the fourth ranked game and seventh overall with 659,000 viewers.
I'm a little surprised that the NHL has jumped on the Thanksgiving bandwagon with a couple of games featuring Canadian teams, however it is better for the CFL that they haven't. Frankly I'm surprised the league hasn't made two games traditional. Hamilton at Toronto would be a logical one, considering it is after the baseball regular season, plus a Western match up.
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