A Thanksgiving match-up between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants aired on Fox averaged 38.5 million viewers on broadcast, cable and streaming television, according to preliminary viwership data from Adobe Analytics and Nielsen shared by the network on Friday.
The game was the most-watched of any regular-season match-up this season, publicists for Fox Sports proclaimed, though it was the lowest-rated game involving the Cowboys on Thanksgiving since the inaugural coronavirus season of 2020, according to historic viewership data.
Publicists for Fox Sports chose to spin things another way, saying it was on pace to become the fourth most-watched Thanksgiving Day game on record. The statement is apparently based on finalized viewership data that Nielsen and Adobe are expected to release within the next few days. That data usually includes out-of-home viewing, which includes bars, restaurants, hotels, airports and other public venues.
The game saw peak viewership between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m. Eastern Time, when 41.3 million people tuned in, Fox Sports said. The Cowboys won the mid-afternoon game against the Giants, with a score of 20-27, clinching their first home turf victory of the 2024 season.
The prime-time game on NBC and Peacock grabbed averaged 26.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics data shared by NBC Sports. The figure included simulcasts on NBC Universo, Telemundo, the NBC Sports app and the streaming service NFL Plus. That game peaked with 31.3 million viewers during the second quarter, between the hours of 9 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Eastern Time, publicists for NBC Sports said. The network affirmed “official” viewership information — which includes out-of-home ratings — will be released on Tuesday.
Less clear is how things shook out for CBS, which aired an early morning match-up between the Chicago Bears and the Detroit Lions. Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, ended its contract with Nielsen in early October; while Nielsen still measures CBS programming, the company no longer provides that data to CBS or any other Paramount-owned media company.
But the CBS game still drew a significant amount of interest from the sports world, largely because of how it ended: With the Bears down by three points, possession of the ball and one time-out in their back pocket, the team had an opportunity to tie the game and send it into overtime, if not win it outright. For reasons that are still a mystery, they opted to run a play with six seconds left on the clock — one that ate up their remaining time. The Bears lost the game, and head coach Matt Eberflus lost his job.
“Your responsibility is to not panic in critical situations… That’s a massive, massive fail by Matt Eberflus.”@M_Ryan02 cannot believe the Bears’ clock management at the end of their loss 😬 pic.twitter.com/aXwXoEc4Ju
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) November 28, 2024
CBS and Paramount now use VideoAmp as their broadcast and streaming TV measurement solution, and it wasn’t clear as of Friday night if data from the Bears-Lions game will be released soon.
