Falling shy of the 31-year high CBS initially reported, the Raiders-Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game had to settle for being the most-watched NFL game in 28 years.
Raiders-Cowboys averaged a 13.1 rating and 37.84 million viewers on CBS Thanksgiving Day, marking the largest NFL regular season audience since Dolphins-Cowboys on NBC Thanksgiving 1993 (38.4M). Overall, it ranks third among NFL regular season windows in the Nielsen people meter era (dates back to 1988).
The Raiders’ win increased 9% in ratings and 25% in viewership from WFT-Cowboys on FOX last Thanksgiving (12.0, 30.33M). Compared to Bills-Cowboys on CBS in 2019, ratings actually slipped 3% (from a 13.5) while viewership jumped 16% (from 32.64M).
CBS initially projected 38.53 million viewers for the game, which would have surpassed Dolphins-Cowboys in ’93 to rank as the NFL’s top regular season audience since 1990 (Giants-49ers: 41.5M). Because Nielsen only includes out-of-home data in its final nationals, the networks have taken to adding their own educated guesses of the out-of-home audience to the preliminary fast-nationals. In situations like weekends and holidays, when it takes a few days before the final nationals are reported, these network projections tend to be widely reported.
Note that out-of-home viewing is not included in household ratings estimates, which would explain why the 13.1 rating declined from 2019. While the rating could not hit a multi-year high, the 39 share — the percentage of homes viewing the game out of the number of television homes in use — is the highest for a Thanksgiving game since 1999 (Dolphins-Cowboys: 42).
In addition to outdrawing every NFL regular season window since 1993, Raiders-Cowboys averaged more viewers than every basketball game on record. Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals between Michael Jordan’s Bulls and the Utah Jazz averaged 35.89 million and the 1979 Magic vs. Bird NCAA men’s national championship averaged 35.11 million.
Five baseball games in the past 33 years have averaged a larger audience: Game 7 of the 2016 World Series (Cubs-Indians: 40.05M), Game 7 of the 2001 World Series (Yankees-D’Backs: 39.12M), Game 7 of the 1997 World Series (Indians-Marlins: 37.99M) and Games 6 and 7 of the 1991 World Series (Braves-Twins: 40.83M, 50.34M). The most recent World Series Game 7 in 2019 had more than 10 million fewer viewers (23.22M).
It was not too long ago that the once-dominant Academy Awards averaged more viewers on a regular basis, topping Thursday’s game in five consecutive years from 2010-14 (topping out at 43.63 million in 2014). This year’s Oscars had just 10.40 million.
Raiders-Cowboys averaged a 10.6 rating in adults 18-49, an 8.8 in 18-34 and a 12.1 in 25-54, up 20, 21 and 20 percent respectively from last year.
As for the other two Thanksgiving Day games, Bears-Lions averaged 26.75 million on FOX — up 14% from Texans-Lions last year (23.39M) but down 1% from the same NFC North matchup in 2019 (27.09M). The game averaged slightly more TV viewers (26.749M) than Tom Brady’s ballyhooed return to New England on NBC earlier in the year (24.747M).
The game ranks third for the season among NFL games behind Raiders-Cowboys and the previous week’s NFL national window (mostly Cowboys-Chiefs: 28.06M).
The Bills-Saints nightcap brought up the rear with 19.38 million on NBC, down 7% from the last primetime Thanksgiving game in 2019 (Saints-Falcons: 20.81M). Last year’s Ravens-Steelers Thanksgiving nightcap was postponed and delayed until the following Wednesday afternoon, averaging 10.75 million viewers.
The Bills’ win averaged the third-smallest audience ever for a primetime Thanksgiving game on NBC, ahead of only Giants-Washington in 2017 (16.91M) and Patriots-Jets in 2012 (19.21M).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.30, network PR]
