The New Orleans Saints' return home to the Superdome on Monday night drew huge television numbers on both sides of the border.
The game drew the highest rating ever for ESPN and was the highest-rated program of the night on any network, broadcast or cable. And TSN, which carried the contest in Canada, said the event drew the third-biggest national audience for an NFL game in the sports cable network's history.
The Saints' 23-3 win over Atlanta in the first game in New Orleans since hurricane Katrina hit the region 13 months ago drew a rating of 11.8 and an audience of 10,850,000 homes on ESPN.
In Canada, it drew 531,000 viewers, the second straight Monday night game to draw over 500,000 people to TSN's broadcast. Last week's Monday night game between Jacksonville and Pittsburgh was the most-watched NFL game in TSN's history at 564,000 viewers.
The Dec. 25, 2004 game between Denver and Tennessee drew 541,000 views on TSN.
