Netflix Unveils NFL Christmas Slate With Cowboys, Lions in Spotlight

Netflix has unwrapped its 2025 Christmas presents from the NFL, and it will be showcasing some of the league’s most popular teams and biggest stories.

The world’s largest streamer unveiled its plans Wednesday for a holiday doubleheader involving the Cowboys visiting the Commanders, followed by the Lions facing the Vikings. With that twin bill, the company will be seeking to beat its 2024 Christmas NFL viewership, which averaged more than 24 million viewers and set a league streaming record.

The two Christmas games will be followed by a separate presentation that night from Amazon involving the Broncos at the Chiefs, the league’s top viewership draw and a team also playing on Thanksgiving this season.

All three games will involve heated divisional rivalries in the late-season windows, and they will help set the eventual playoff field. Beyond that, however, the appeal of the selected teams is clear as the Cowboys remain one of the most popular teams nationally and were picked to face the Eagles in the Sept. 4 kickoff game. The Commanders just had their best season in 33 years, reached the NFC championship game, and recently struck a deal to return to the RFK Stadium property in a new domed venue. 

The Lions and Vikings, meanwhile, took their epic battle for last year’s NFC North division title down to the league’s final regular-season game. CBS Sports will produce the games, with NFL Media handling those duties for pregame, postgame, and halftime programming.

A partial base of all three 2025 Christmas games, however, also resides in a separate doubleheader Fox will show on Saturday, Dec. 20, involving the Eagles-Commanders game and a Packers-Bears clash. The Commanders will play again five days later, with the NFL increasingly using these Saturday games in late December, after the college football regular season, to help set up the Christmas games as the league looks to expand its presence on another major holiday. 

The NFL, meanwhile, remains a foundational element of Netflix’s growing ambitions in live sports and the advertising revenue generated around it. As that happened, the company is increasingly viewed as a safe harbor for investors amid broader economic turbulence, with its tariff-resistant business model and fast-growing revenue

Netflix’s early drops of its 2025 NFL games also follow similar reveals from NBC, Amazon, CBS, and the league’s international plans this season, as well as ESPN and Fox—all of which precede the full release of the schedule Wednesday night. 

With the solidifying of the Thanksgiving and Christmas slates, the Lions, Cowboys, and Chiefs will each play on both holidays.