Once-Enticing NFL Christmas Day Lineup on Netflix, Amazon Falls Flat

Just as Amazon is having its Christmas dreams dashed, so, too, is Netflix. 

The Cowboys lost to the Vikings on Sunday Night Football, 34–26, reducing their playoff chances to less than 1% and further reducing the appeal of a forthcoming Christmas Day game on Netflix. The streaming giant rolled out in May what was thought then to be a blockbuster doubleheader for the holiday, including Dallas and division rival Washington, followed by an NFC North clash between the Lions and Vikings. 

At the time, the Commanders were fresh off a trip to the NFC championship game, marking their best season in more than 30 years, while the Lions and Vikings were also playoff teams that had just drawn a big audience for the finale of the 2024 NFL regular season. 

Now, those upcoming holiday games aren’t remotely as attractive. The 4–10 Commanders and 6–8 Vikings have already been eliminated from playoff contention, with both teams hit hard this year by injuries. The 6-7-1 Cowboys have only a slim possibility of claiming the NFC East division title, while the 8–6 Lions are 1.5 games out of the final NFC playoff slot. 

The Netflix situation mirrors that of streaming rival Amazon, which will show a newly created Christmas night showcase with the Broncos and Chiefs. Kansas City, however, was eliminated from playoff contention Sunday, and star quarterback Patrick Mahomes sustained a season-ending knee injury, tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. 

The reduced appeal for all three Christmas games next week suggests that the current NFL streaming record could remain safe, and that the league’s dominance on Thanksgiving won’t extend fully to another holiday. That streaming mark was set during last year’s Christmas games on Netflix, which averaged more than 24 million viewers. YouTube also had eyes on breaking that record during Week 1 of the 2025 season with its presentation of a Chiefs-Chargers game from Brazil, but averaged just 19.7 million viewers and did not use an accredited method to measure its viewership.

Loading Up

Despite the diminished appeal for the NFL’s Christmas tripleheader, both Netflix and Amazon are building up their production and talent, and they will give the games their full treatment. 

Netflix revealed last week the full team of talent that will join the father-son announcing duo of Ian and Noah Eagle at the games. The two Eagles, also headliners at September’s Front Office Sports Tuned In summit, will be the play-by-play announcers for the two games, with Ian Eagle in Washington for Cowboys-Commanders, and Noah Eagle in Minnesota for Lions-Vikings. 

They will be joined by an extensive array of game and rules analysts, sideline reporters, and special guests, including NFL RedZone’s Scott Hanson, CBS Sports’s Nate Burleson and Matt Ryan, and Fox Sports’s Drew Brees, among many others. Brees is a rare entrant in the lineup from Fox or ESPN, which resisted lending its talent to Netflix. 

Amazon, meanwhile, will have its full Thursday Night Football crew involved for Broncos-Chiefs, one that just set a regular-season viewership record on Prime Video.