Thanksgiving weekend produced a pair of declines for the NFL on FOX.
The Week 12 NFL singleheader window, featuring Giants/Washington in 32% of markets, earned 20.5 million viewers on FOX last Sunday — down 1% from coverage featuring Lions/Patriots last year (20.7M) but up 22% from coverage on CBS in 2013 (16.8M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Despite the decline, viewership was the second-highest of the season for the singleheader window — trailing only coverage featuring Packers/Panthers in Week 9 (20.9M). FOX has aired the four most-watched singleheader telecasts this season and seven of the top eight.
Eagles/Lions had 25.4 million on Thanksgiving Day, down 14% from Bears/Lions on CBS last year (29.4M) and down 10% from Packers/Lions in 2013 (28.3M). The Lions’ blowout win was the least-watched Thanksgiving afternoon game in six years, since Raiders/Cowboys and Packers/Lions had 25.2 and 22.0 million, respectively.
The game was the least-watched of the day, marking the first time that one of the afternoon Thanksgiving windows has trailed the primetime matchup.
(Wknd. numbers from NFL Communications [.pdf])
