Airing on broadcast television for the first time, the Thanksgiving night NFL game had a massive increase in overnight ratings.
The Week 12 Patriots/Jets NFL regular season game drew an 11.5 overnight on NBC Thanksgiving night, up 92% from 49ers/Ravens on NFL Network last year (6.0). Overnights for the 2010 Jets/Bengals game on NFL Network were not available.
The massive increase is almost entirely attributable to the move from cable (NFL Network) to broadcast (NBC). NBC is in nearly 50 million more homes than NFL Network.
Though up from last year, Patriots/Jets earned the lowest overnight rating for a Thanksgiving Day game on broadcast since 2008.
In addition, the 11.5 overnight is the second-lowest of the season for an NFL telecast on NBC. The only telecast to earn a lower overnight this season was Saints/Broncos in Week 8 (11.4), which aired opposite the clinching Game 4 of the World Series.
(Thursday’s overnight from NBC press release via The Futon Critic)
