Given the league’s season-long slump — and a weak schedule — NFL Thanksgiving ratings were not as bad as they could have been.
Last Thursday’s Chargers-Cowboys NFL Thanksgiving special had an 11.1 rating and 26.3 million viewers on CBS, down 23% in ratings and 25% in viewership from Washington-Dallas on FOX last year, the most-watched regular season game since 1995 (14.5, 35.1M), and down 22% and 19% respectively from Panthers-Cowboys on CBS in 2015 (14.3, 32.5M).
The 11.1 tied the lowest rating for any afternoon Thanksgiving game since 2008, when Titans-Lions had a 9.7 and Seahawks-Cowboys a 10.5. Viewership was the lowest for a Cowboys game on the holiday since their 2009 matchup with Oakland (25.2M).
Despite the lows, it was still the most-watched NFL game of the season on any network. The previous high was 26.0 million for the Week 2 national window (mostly Cowboys-Broncos). Dallas has played in four of the five — and six of the eight — most watched NFL telecasts this season.
Even with nine million fewer viewers watching, Chargers-Cowboys still earned an objectively massive television audience. Outside of the NFL playoffs, only one sporting event all year has had a larger audience — Game 7 of the World Series (28.2M).
Keep in mind that some DISH subscribers in Dallas and other major markets were unable to watch the game due to a carriage dispute.
Earlier in the day, Vikings-Lions scored an 11.4 and 24.7 million on FOX — down 12% in ratings and 10% in viewership from the same matchup on CBS last year (13.0, 27.6M) and down 7% and 3% respectively from Eagles-Lions in 2015 (12.3, 25.4M).
It was the least-watched afternoon Thanksgiving game since Packers-Lions in 2009 (22.0M), but delivered the third-largest audience of the season. Compared to other sports, only Game 7 of the World Series and college football’s national championship (25.3M) had more viewers this year.
Rounding out the holiday tripleheader, the 2-8 Giants against 4-6 Washington had 16.9 million viewers on NBC — down 19% from Colts-Steelers last year (20.9M) and down 39% from Bears-Packers in 2015 (27.8M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Washington’s win was the least-watched Thanksgiving game regardless of timeslot since 49ers-Ravens in 2012, the last time NFL Network had an exclusive broadcast on the holiday (10.7M).
The full list of 2017 NFL ratings is available here.
[Thu. numbers from CBS Sports, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Sports Business Daily]
