The NFL is on such a TV roll that it might want to differentiate regular season audiences between Thanksgiving Day – and everything else.
Fox Sports’ late Sunday afternoon telecast of the San Francisco 49ers 42-19 win over the Philadelphia Eagles delivered 27.7 million average viewers, up 18% over last year’s comparable game window.
The Week 13 telecast was Fox’s most-watched Sunday game of the 2023 season. And the most-watched TV show of the week – on any network.
Still, the NFL’s Thanksgiving games continue to be a category unto themselves regarding TV numbers – and they can thank the Dallas Cowboys.
CBS Sports’ broadcast of America’s Team’s 45-10 rout of the Washington Commanders this Thanksgiving Day drew a monster 41.76 million viewers.
That made it the second most-watched regular season game in the NFL’s 103-year history.
It ranked only behind the 42.1 million average viewers for the Cowboys vs. New York Giants Thanksgiving in 2022. The Tiffany network is on track to deliver its most-watched NFL season since 1998, averaging nearly 20 million viewers per game.
Despite being a rematch of last season’s NFC Championship Game, Sunday’s 49ers-Eagles didn’t equal Fox’s early Thanksgiving Day telecast of the Green Bay Packers’ 29-22 win over the Detroit Lions. That game pulled 33.8 million viewers.
Still, the Eagles are emerging as one of the biggest TV draws of the season, playing in five of the seven most-watched game windows this season, according to Sports Media Watch.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals 34-31 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars drew 16.5 million viewers, up 46% from last year’s comparable game window.
ESPN’s surging prime time MNF franchise is up 29% to 16.7 million average viewers per game season-to-date. ESPN2’s “ManningCast” with Peyton and Eli Manning contributed 1 million viewers to Monday’s total viewership.
Nielsen’s addition of so-called “out of home” viewers watching NFL games in bars, restaurants, and house parties has also driven TV numbers.
“Thanksgiving has always produced disproportionately large NFL audiences, but that has especially been the case in the out-of-home era,” noted Sports Media Watch. “The three most-watched Thanksgiving Day games have all come since Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its national estimates three years ago, with each of the three topping the 40 million mark.”
