For the first time in recent memory, all 4 games in a week will be on U.S. television. The CFL season debut will be on ESPNews as the Saskatchewan Roughriders meet up with their former quarterback Darian Durant in his new home in Montréal.
The ESPN family usually skips the Grey Cup rematch but ESPNews will have the rematch of the 2016 Grey Cup from the site of the 2017 Grey Cup. The Stampeders actually lost their first game in 2016 but didn't lose again until the last regular season game. Of course, Calgary lost its last game of the year so revenge, of sorts, is in order.
ESPN2 has a couple of weekend games as Edmonton travels to Vancouver late on Saturday. The Battle of Southern Ontario will also be on ESPN2 from BMO Field Sunday afternoon.
Winnipeg gets to enjoy an extra week of getting ready for the CFL season.
ESPN2
Saturday
Edmonton @ BC, 10p
Sunday
Hamilton @ Toronto, 4p
ESPNews
Thursday
Saskatchewan @ Montréal, 7:30p
Friday
Calgary @ Ottawa, 7:30p
TSN
Thursday
Saskatchewan @ Montréal, 7:30p
Friday
Calgary @ Ottawa, 7:30p
Saturday
Edmonton @ BC, 10p
Sunday
Hamilton @ Toronto, 4p
Bye week: Winnipeg
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Edmonton and Commonwealth Stadium will host the 2018 Grey Cup. The Alberta capital previously hosted the Grey Cup in 1984, 1997, 2002 and 2010. The timing of 2018 ties into the 40th anniversary of Commonwealth Stadium and 70 seasons of the Edmonton Esks.
Commonwealth Stadium has hosted 4 of the 8 Grey Cups with more than 60,000 people (Olympic Stadium in Montréal had the other 4 Grey Cups: 1977, 1979, 2001, 2008). The Commonwealth Stadium capacity has been reduced to 56,302 since 2013, though more space might be opened up for the 106th Grey Cup.
The CFL is an odd duck in that even with 9 teams, there aren't that many options to host a Grey Cup. Olympic Stadium in Montréal has issues in November, even though the stadium did host a MLS playoff game last November. Hamilton, even with a new stadium, hasn't hosted a Grey Cup since 1996. There are whispers about the viability of Calgary. Vancouver and Toronto have hosted 2 Grey Cups since 2011.
The Ottawa RedBlacks showed up in the Netflix series The Ranch. Colt Bennett, played by Ashton Kutcher, is a former football star.
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The CFL announcer teams are generally Chris Cuthbert with Glen Suitor; Rod Black with Duane Forde; and, when needed, Gord Miller with Matt Dunigan. In previous years, we have kept track of the announcer teams for each week. But like the NHL Network matinee rebroadcast feeds, we can only cover so much minutia.
If there is a bigger, ongoing story, for example, one of the announcing teams permanently changes partners, Gord Miller gets 2 games every week, or Derek Taylor is suddenly deep into the play-by-play mix, we won't be reporting on particulars. The CFL schedule helps determine announcing teams at times. Black and Forde stay out east while Cuthbert and Suitor stay out west, unless they don't. If Dunigan isn't in the studio, chances are he is doing colour on a game.
Rod Smith will host the studio show along with Jock Climie, Milt Stegall, Dunigan, and Chris Schultz, who missed most of last season. Climie might host if Smith is drafted to call a game. Stegall and Climie alternate (Climie is also a labour and employment lawyer in Ottawa) but also fill in for Dunigan when he is at the stadium.
If ESPN is covering the halftime, we don't see too much of the studio crew, though the studio crew gets to shine on the ESPN3 telecasts.
photo credit: The Ranch/Netflix
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