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The new Thanksgiving Day trend of putting major college basketball games on after traditional NFL matchups paid off for at least one broadcaster last Thursday.
Fox averaged 5.49 million viewers for Michigan State’s 74–58 victory over North Carolina, according to initial Nielsen fast national panel-only data, marking the network’s most-watched college basketball game on record. That number will increase when Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel numbers are released later this week.
The game aired at 4:30 p.m. ET, directly following Fox’s telecast of the Packers’ 31–24 win over the Lions that kicked off at 1 p.m. ET. Showcasing the benefit of a strong lead-in audience, Michigan State–UNC peaked at 13.41 million viewers during the first 15 minutes of the broadcast from 4:30 to 4:45 p.m. ET. Viewership figures for Packers-Lions have not been released yet.
Fox’s audience of 5.49 million for Michigan State–UNC is also the most-watched regular-season college hoops game on any network since 2008, slightly edging out the record audiences Fox and CBS drew on Thanksgiving Day the previous two years. Fox drew 5.18 million viewers for Michigan State–Arizona in 2023, and CBS drew 5.17 million viewers for Illinois-Arkansas in 2024.
The new mark is pending TV ratings from Duke’s 80–71 victory over Arkansas on CBS, which aired at 8 p.m. ET directly following the Cowboys’ dramatic 31–28 win over the Chiefs. Kansas City–Dallas is expected to potentially draw the largest regular-season NFL viewership number and challenge the 50 million mark.
Full Thanksgiving Day NFL ratings are expected to be released Tuesday or Wednesday.
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