CBS Bets Big on Chiefs-Bills Rivalry As AFC Landscape Changes

The Chiefs-Bills rivalry, arguably the NFL’s best this decade, is set for its latest installment Sunday, and CBS will again give the game its highest-level treatment. The circumstances surrounding this year’s contest, however, are quite different. 

The network will again bring its pregame show, The NFL Today, to Highmark Stadium to broadcast live from there. The move repeats one that CBS made last year, and has since become standard for NFL networks showing big regular-season games, such as Fox doing the same in Kansas City for the Super Bowl LIX rematch in Week 2 between the Eagles and Chiefs, and by NBC for the Week 4 Sunday Night Football game between the Packers and Cowboys.

CBS expects to at least challenge, if not surpass, the average viewership of 33.8 million for the Eagles-Chiefs that currently stands as the most-watched NFL game this season.

A Thanksgiving clash on CBS between the Chiefs and Cowboys will quite likely beat both games, but the network’s prior history with the Chiefs and Bills has been a stellar one, as it has aired the last seven games between the two. Among the recent highlights:

• The 2024 American Football Conference championship game between the two averaged 57.7 million viewers, setting a new high for that contest. 
• The regular-season game last year averaged 31.2 million, the best non-holiday game in that part of the season for CBS since 2007.
• A division playoff game from the 2023 season averaged 50.4 million viewers, setting another record for that part of the postseason. 

Sunday’s game in Buffalo will be shown to 100% of the country in the late-afternoon window.

A Changing League

Much of the Chiefs-Bills rivalry, however, has stemmed from the teams being the clear leaders of the AFC, something that’s no longer the case in a new-look NFL this season. 

The 5–3 Chiefs started the season 0–2, and while the team has returned to form of late with five wins in six games, they still trail the upstart AFC West division leader Broncos by a full game and are tied with the Chargers for second place.

The 5–2 Bills, meanwhile, looked like themselves last Sunday in a 40–9 rout of the Panthers, but two straight losses before that have helped put the team behind New England in the AFC East by half a game.

All of them, meanwhile, are also looking up at the 7–1 Colts, perhaps the biggest surprise of the season so far across the NFL as new owner and CEO Carlie Irsay-Gordon continues to make a significant impact. 

If the past is precedent, though, more late drama awaits the Chiefs-Bills game.

“Every single game comes down to one play here or there that someone has to make, if that’s offense, defense, or whatever it is,” said Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes. “I think it comes down to players making plays in big moments, and that’s worked out for us in the playoffs and worked out for them in other times.”