A football season full of big NFL ratings continued on Thanksgiving.
As many observers predicted before the game, Chiefs-Cowboys set an all-time regular-season record, drawing 57.2 million viewers on CBS. This shatters the previous record of 42.1 million viewers set by Giants-Cowboys in 2022.
Fox announced Packers-Lions drew 47.7 million viewers in the early window between Fox and the Tubi streaming service, also the most-watched early Thanksgiving game on record.
The first two games were helped in particular by being close, compelling matchups. The Lions or Packers have won the NFC North five of the past six seasons. The Cowboys are historically the NFL’s biggest draw, and the Chiefs have star power with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Andy Reid, who have won three Super Bowls together and reached two more.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys have worked themselves out of the doldrums, winning three in a row to get to 6-5-1 and be in the hunt for playoff contention. The Chiefs, now at 6–6, will have to claw to reach the playoffs in the AFC.
Last year, Fox aired Giants-Cowboys in mid-afternoon, and it drew 38.5 million viewers. The early game, Bears-Lions on CBS, averaged 37.5 million viewers. Dolphins-Packers on NBC had 26.1 million viewers.
This year, football ratings have surged. The NFL got its biggest numbers ever for its Sunday morning international games, which averaged 6.2 million viewers. As of late October, CBS and NBC were on a record pace. As of mid-November, college football ratings were up 2% versus last year.
Football ratings have been boosted this year in part because Nielsen has incorporated the use of Big Data + Panel, which has included a bigger sample of households in its measurement methodology.
