Local News
The Chiefs-Cowboys game was the NFL’s most-viewed regular season game ever.
There are probably only two reasons that a pair of presidents from network sports divisions, another network’s analytics and insights guru, and the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution would hop on a conference call with reporters.
· They were celebrating a new, multibillion dollar broadcast rights deal.
· They were celebrating staggeringly excellent ratings that someday will lead to even more billions in the next rights deal.
The latter was the reason last Wednesday, when CBS Sports president/CEO David Berson, NBC Sports president Rick Cordella, Fox Sports’s Michael Mulvihill, and NFL executive vice president Hans Schroeder convened on a call to fully court the press not more than an hour after the league’s massive Thanksgiving ratings were announced.
Make no mistake, massive is not hyperbolic, and the satisfaction of the NFL and its right partners was justified.
Chiefs-Cowboys in the late-afternoon (4:30 p.m.) window on CBS averaged 57.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched regular-season game of all-time, and by a significant margin. The previous record was held by a Giants-Cowboys matchup (42.1 million) on Thanksgiving 2022.
The three Thanksgiving games this year — which also included Packers-Lions (1 p.m., Fox Sports) and Bengals-Ravens (8:20 p.m. NBC) — averaged 44.7 million viewers, blowing past the previous high of 34.5 million set in 2024.
The execs, understandably, were practically giddy on the call. “Nothing else [on television] can come close to aggregating this type of simultaneous viewership,” declared Berson, who was absolutely correct.
A few other thoughts on the massive ratings and what they mean:
The fix was in for Chiefs-Cowboys.
No, no, not for the actual game itself, which the Cowboys won, 31-28. Get your conspiracy theories elsewhere. But the system absolutely was gamed for those teams to play in that most desirable viewership window on that football-dominated holiday.
The Cowboys are historically the biggest ratings draw for some goofy reason probably having to do with nostalgic Roger Staubach fans. The Chiefs are the modern chart-toppers, kind of like their superstar tight end’s superstar fiancée is in her line of work. Put that game at 4:25 p.m. (the window sure to draw the largest audience) on Thanksgiving (the most-watched day of football) and it would have been a shock if a viewership record wasn’t set.
Berson readily acknowledged this, saying CBS lobbied for Chiefs-Cowboys for the shot at the viewership record and the bragging rights — for the network and the league – that would come with it.
“We decided to go really big,” said Berson. “It’s the perfect recipe for record-breaking viewership.”
Streaming services are going to want in on this.
The league and its partners got it so right this year with the matchups and decisions on who plays when, and on what network, that it’s inevitable that potential future rights partners are going to want a slice of the Thanksgiving pie.
The current 11-year, $111 billion rights deal with Fox, NBC, CBS, and ESPN, signed in 2021, has an opt-out after the 2030 season (2029 for ESPN). Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in September that the league — which has all the leverage, given the desirability of NFL content — would consider renegotiating as soon as next year.
Goodell, who obviously has no fear of oversaturating the product, said recently that it’s possible the league would add a second Black Friday game to the schedule. While everyone talked around it on Wednesday’s call, common sense suggests a fourth Thanksgiving game with a streaming partner could be part of the next rights deal, whenever Goodell decides the negotiations shall begin anew.
Viewership is higher in part because it’s measured more accurately.
In February, Nielsen Media, the company that tracks ratings and viewership, expanded its out-of-home measurement, which includes places such as bars and gyms, to cover 100 percent of the United States population. It’s part of the far more expansive Big Data + Panel system, and thus a more accurate measure of how many people are actually watching than what was available just a few years ago.
Multiple executives during Wednesday’s call made a point to note an appreciation for Nielsen and the changes it has made to be more precise. It was always kind of absurd that places where fans gathered to watch games were not accurately measured.
“The numbers finally reflect the reality that’s been in place for many, many years,” said Mulvihill. “The power that sports has to bring us together and facilitate shared experience is rare and valuable, especially with so much content driving people into a more isolated experience.”
Super Bowl ratings will be enormous
“It wasn’t that long ago,” mused Schroeder, “that we got 100 million viewers for the Super Bowl, and we thought it was about as high as we could go.”
But with the Big Data/out-of-home improvements in measurement, and a thoroughly compelling season underway (everyone is thrilled to have the Patriots back in the picture, yes?), new heights seem not only possible but probable for Super Bowl LX.
The Eagles’ victory over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX in February averaged a record 127.7 million viewers across broadcast and streaming platforms.
“We’re approaching 130 [million],” said Schroeder, “and it just seems like we keep hitting new heights all the time.”
Get the latest Boston sports news
Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.
