NFL shatters Thanksgiving Day viewership records
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Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs looks to pass the ball in a game against the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 27 in Arlington, Texas. Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Nearly 45 million people on average watched the three Thanksgiving Day NFL games this year, according to Nielsen ratings, shattering the previous record of 34.5 million viewers set last year.
Why it matters: The NFL credits the ratings boost, in part, to better methodology used by Nielsen to calculate out-of-home viewers, or people who watch its games in bars and restaurants.
- That is especially important on unique days, such as playoff games and Thanksgiving, "when people gather even more together," NFL EVP and chief operating officer Hans Schroeder said on a call with reporters.
Zoom in: Driving the huge ratings was the record-setting numbers drawn by the nail-biter between the Dallas Cowboys and the Kansas City Chiefs.
- That game, which averaged 57.2 million viewers on CBS, is now the most-watched regular season NFL game of all time. The game peaked with 61.3 million viewers in its final moments.
- The matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions briefly broke the NFL's regular-season record when it drew 47.7 million viewers earlier in the day on Fox before the Cowboys-Chiefs showdown.
- The final Thanksgiving Day game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens on NBC and Telemundo drew 28.4 million viewers.
Between the lines: More viewers also tuned into the Thanksgiving Day games on streaming than ever before, per the NFL, which said streaming delivered, on average, 2.2 million viewers — up 58% from last year.
Zoom out: Overall, NFL viewership is up significantly this year compared to last, a sign that football continues to be the most popular television program by far in the U.S., and that it will continue to drive linear television's survival as more people pivot to streaming.
- Through the 12th week of the regular season, games have averaged more than 17 million viewers per game, up 6% compared with last year, per Schroeder.
- CBS Sports president David Berson said the network is having its best season since the NFL returned to CBS in 1998.
Context: Part of that viewership boost can be attributed to improvements to Nielsen's methodology, which the NFL says is more accurately capturing viewership now compared to just a few months ago.
- In September, the league accused Nielsen of undercounting millions of football viewers for years.
- The measurement giant has rolled out a new "Big Data + Panel" measurement system for live programming that incorporates data from smart TVs, in addition to Nielsen's representative panel, when calculating viewership. The NFL and its media partners seem pleased with that update.
What to watch: Viewership for major moments continues to jump on live TV, despite more people watching live programs on streaming.
- Viewership for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC and Peacock this year broke records with 34.3 million total viewers, up 8% year over year.
The bottom line: "What really drives this business is the unique ability of sports to bring people together and create shared experiences in real time, and those shared experiences become more rare and more valuable when there's so much media content out there that is driving people into more isolated experiences," said Mike Mulvihill, president of insights and analytics at Fox Sports.
