Viewers feasted on live sports programming during the Thanksgiving week, with pro and college football games generating huge viewership numbers.

NFL football games led the ratings onslaught, generating the three most-watched games of the year led by CBS's Thanksgiving day Washington Commanders-Dallas Cowboys game, which drew 41.76 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings published by SportsMedia Watch. The telecast was the second most-watched NFL regular-season game on record behind only last Thanksgiving’s Giants-Cowboys game, which drew 42 million viewers.

Fox's November 23 Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game drew 33 million viewers, while NBC’s San Francisco 49’ers-Seattle Seahawks Thanksgiving evening game drew 24.78 million viewers.

CBS’s November 26 late Sunday afternoon NFL window – mostly featuring the Buffalo Bills-Philadelphia Eagles matchup -- drew 30.90 million viewers for fourth place on the chart. Also, the November 20 Philadelphia Eagles-Kansas City Chiefs Monday Night Football telecast averaged more than 29 million combined viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Plus, and ESPN Deportes – the biggest Monday Night Football audience for the Walt Disney Company since 1996, according to ESPN. 

On the college football front, Fox’s November 25 Ohio State-Michigan game drew a season-high 19 million viewers and finished as the most-watched regular season college football game in 12 years. 

The biggest non-football audience was Fox’s Thanksgiving day college basketball game between Michigan State and Arizona, which drew 5.18 million viewers, the largest regular-season college football audience in 15 years, according to SportsMedia Watch. 

The good folks at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, who produce the Peabody Awards honoring excellence in storytelling that reflect social issues and emerging voices, sent out a list of notable Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes from shows that won or were nominated for Peabodys. They noted many shows, including Friends and Cheers, had memorable Thanksgiving episodes. The most famous is probably WKRP in Cincinnati’s 1978 “Turkeys Away” which saw the radio station misguidedly release live turkeys out of a helicopter. But other quality shows produced less well-known holiday-themed episodes viewers should consider, should they be looking for thoughtful entertainment available to watch on popular streaming services. Here is a recap with the Peabody reasoning. (P.S.: Peabody submissions are open until December 12.)

Mad Men, “The Wheel” (season 1, episode 13): “Ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) fights with his wife, Betty (January Jones), when he tells her he doesn't want to go to Thanksgiving dinner at her parents’ house with their two children, saying the drive isn't worth the trouble. Don stays home to work instead, claiming he must now that he's a partner in the firm. In a theme-crystallizing moment for the entire series, Don puts together a riveting, emotional pitch for Kodak's new, wheel-shaped slide projector, using his own images of happy family moments while telling the clients, ‘This is not a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards, and it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. On Mad Men, the performance of an ideal — that happy family — is more important than the ideal itself, and it's always for sale.’ ” (Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.)

Master of None, “Thanksgiving” (season 2, episode 8): “This installment of Aziz Ansari's impressionistic dramedy became one of the series’ best-known, launching co-writer and co-star Lena Waithe (writing and starring with Ansari) as a creative force. In it, Ansari's character, Dev, celebrates Thanksgiving through the years with Waithe’s Denise and her family. (Dev’s immigrant family does not celebrate.) The progression of years allows us to see Denise come out to her family as gay, and their journey from resistance to acceptance. Waithe partially based the script on her own life, showing Denise from age 12 to adulthood, revealing her truth first to Dev, then to her mother (Angela Bassett) and sister (Kym Whitley), and, finally, bringing girlfriends to the holiday dinner. It made Waithe the first Black woman to win an Emmy and won a GLAAD media award; Waithe would go on to create shows such as The Chi, Boomerang, and Twenties, and to write and produce the film Queen & Slim.” (Streaming on Netflix.)

Modern Family, ‘Winner Winner Turkey Dinner' (season 9, episode 7): "On another show built to deliver strong Thanksgiving episodes — it's a family comedy, after all—this one comes with the perfect sitcom premise: Patriarch Jay (Ed O’Neill) is poised to give a toast to recent family members’ successes, but, as we learn, all of them are built on exactly the kinds of fibs many of us tend to tell our families. For instance, Claire (Julie Bowen) won a Turkey Trot, but only by accidentally taking a shortcut; Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) pretended to have fought off a burglar when, in fact, he injured himself with his own nunchucks. The series' strong cast is at its best here in a simple, silly setup.” (Streaming on Hulu.)

The Sopranos, “He Is Risen” (season 3, episode 8): "A lot of standard Sopranos drama happens in this episode, from the growing tension between Tony (James Gandolfini) and Ralphie (Joe Pantoliano) to the onset of Tony's affair with Mercedes saleswoman Gloria (Annabella Sciorra), whom he meets in their shared therapist’s waiting room. But the family Thanksgiving dinner itself plays almost like a sitcom, thanks in large part to Tony’s sister Janice (Aida Turturro) bringing along her new boyfriend, a narcoleptic Christian who keeps falling asleep throughout the festivities. There's also plenty of scatological humor when a capo dies on the toilet after muttering, "F---ing turkey, it's like spackle in my bowels." (Streaming on Max.)

This Is Us, “Pilgrim Rick” (season 1, episode 8): “NBC’s weepy family drama is in its first-season prime here. In the flashback segments, we see a Thanksgiving when the three kids are young and things don’t go at all as planned: After their car breaks down, the Pearsons must spend the holiday in a cheap motel roasting cheese dogs on a furnace, watching Police Academy 3, and inventing a character named Pilgrim Rick, which is the kind of thing we all know makes the best memories. The present-day storyline reveals a major secret that changes Randall’s understanding of his entire life thus far, and particularly his relationship with his adopted mother and his birth father. This means you’re in for some incendiary Sterling K. Brown acting, one of the best reasons to tune into any episode of This Is Us. NBC’s weepy family drama is in its first-season prime here. In the flashback segments, we see a Thanksgiving when the three kids are young and things don't go at all as planned: After their car breaks down, the Pearsons must spend the holiday in a cheap motel roasting cheese dogs on a furnace, watching Police Academy 3, and inventing a character named Pilgrim Rick, which is the kind of thing we all know makes the best memories. The present-day storyline reveals a major secret that changes Randall's understanding of his entire life thus far, and particularly his relationship with his adopted mother and his birth father. This means you're in for some incendiary Sterling K. Brown acting, one of the best reasons to tune into any episode of This Is Us.” (Streaming on Hulu.)

The West Wing, “The Indians in the Lobby” (season 3, episode 8): “The West Wing had a particular way with Thanksgiving episodes, given its unique ability to balance major national and international crises with moments of humanity and humor. In this episode, Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) negotiates with two Stockbridge-Munsee Indian activists determined to leverage the emotional resonance of Thanksgiving to get an answer to a 15-year-old request, while President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) has a memorable interaction with the Butterball turkey hotline. Runner up: ‘Shibboleth,’ the second season's Thanksgiving outing, in which C.J. deals with the White House turkey festivities while a group of Chinese stowaways are discovered in a container ship in California.” (Streaming on Max.) 

On the heels of HBO Max's Thanksgiving day Love, Lizzo documentary, the streaming service announced a December concert special featuring the Grammy-winning artist.

The Lizzo: Live in Concert special will stream New Year's Eve (December 31) and will feature the Emmy and Grammy winner performing her hits, along with special guests Cardi B, SZA and Missy Elliott, said HBO Max. 

Also: ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘Euphoria,’ ‘Squid Game’ Top Emmy Award Winners

The streaming service's Love, Lizzo documentary airing November 24 focuses on the life of the singer, songwriter, rapper, flutist and actress, and looks at her humble beginnings to her meteoric rise with an intimate look into the moments that shaped her hard-earned rise to fame, success, love and international stardom, according to HBO Max.■ 

MeTV's "A Very Merry MeTV" programming event starts Sunday, November 20, and continues through Christmas Day. The event has both Thanksgiving- and Christmas-themed episodes of vintage series, including Gilligan's Island, My Three Sons and The Beverly Hillbillies, with the Christmas fare beginning November 27.

Commemorating what would've been Charles Schulz's 100th birthday (November 26), MeTV has movies A Boy Named Charlie Brown on Sunday, November 20 and Snoopy Come Home on Sunday, November 27. A Boy Named Charlie Brown, from 1969, sees Charlie enter a spelling bee, while Snoopy, Come Home!, from 1972, sees Snoopy sneak off to visit a girl in the hospital, only to find dogs are not all that welcome in many public places. MeTV said the two films are the only Peanuts holiday specials on broadcast TV this year.

Part 1 of episode "The Thanksgiving Story," from The Waltons, airs November 23, and Part 2 is on Thanksgiving Day.

On Saturday, December 3, original horror series Svengoolie features movie The Raven, followed by a special one-hour Sventoonie Christmas special, It's a Wonderful Loss of Life featuring the movie The Great Rupert.

Morning show Toon In with Me has a primetime special December 5 when Tiny Toony's Christmas Carol airs, featuring Bill the Cartoon Curator (Bill Leff), Toony the Tuna (Kevin Fleming) and the gang as they present classic holiday shorts.

The Waltons also airs on Christmas Day, including episodes "The Best Christmas," "The Children's Carol" and "Grandma Comes Home," among others. ■

Cable viewers took a respite from the cable news networks during the Thanksgiving week, as ESPN and Hallmark Channel led the cable ratings charts.

ESPN, fueled by its lineup of holiday weekend college football games, was the most watched cable network during the week of Nov. 23 to Nov. 29, averaging 3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Hallmark Channel rode its popular holiday-themed original movies to a second place finish with 2.5 million viewers. The network was led by its Nov. 29 film If I Only Had Christmas, which averaged nearly 4 million viewers, said Nielsen. 

Related: Cover Story: Holiday Cheer

The three cable news networks rounded out the top five most watched cable services for the week, led by Fox News’ average of 2 million viewers, MSNBC’s 1.6 million viewers and CNN’s 1.4 million watchers, reported Nielsen.

On a total day basis, Hallmark Channel took the crown, averaging 1.1 million viewers. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and ESPN followed closely behind, according to Nielsen. 

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Nov. 23-29*, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks 

Via Vizio’s Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Once again the NFL was on top, snagging 8.41% of all minutes watched, an increase from the previous week’s 6.99%. College football followed, while the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had a 1.03% share duration putting it in third place. Thanks to a marathon on HGTV, Home Town jumped into seventh place (0.70%) while multiple news programs slipped in the ranking compared to the previous week. Speaking of marathons, although it didn’t make the top 25 ranking for the full week, History ran a Band of Brothers marathon on Black Friday, and it was No. 3 for watch-time that day (college football and college basketball were first and second, respectively).

Thanks in part to football (both NFL and college), CBS jumped into first place with a 9.49% share duration, followed by NBC (7.96%) and Fox (6.60%). Hallmark moved into fifth place, thanks in part to airings of Christmas Waltz, while newcomers to the top 25 included AMC and Freeform. It was a quieter week for news networks: Both CNN and Fox News dropped compared to the previous week, although MSNBC remained steady at No. 9.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

TV ad impressions during NFL games were once again on the rise, up to 10.2 billion, a 31.13% increase from the previous week. College football was the only other program to surpass 1 billion impressions (3.87 billion), while the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade generated 927.4 million impressions. Dancing with the Stars jumped into the top 25 ranking with 272.5 million impressions, a 14.91% increase from the previous week, as did 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way (257.1 million, a slight 3.64% week-over-week increase).

CBS took first place with 9.1 billion TV ad impressions, more than half of which came from NFL games. NFL was a top impressions-driver for the second and third place networks, NBC (5.6 billion) and Fox (4.6 billion), while college football helped deliver eyeballs to ABC. Hallmark marched up the chart to No. 10, thanks to its continued rollout of Christmas movies. Animal Planet was a new entrant to the ranking with 214.7 million impressions, 94.1 million of which came from just two programs: Tanked: Tanksgiving and Alaska: The Last Frontier: The Frozen Edge.

*Note: Due to a wide Amazon Web Services outage on Nov. 25, the data above may be incomplete.

The sports world continues to be challenged by COVID-19 as numerous pro and college sports events have been postponed or cancelled this Thanksgiving weekend due to the pandemic.

In the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers game has been postponed a second time and will now be played on Tuesday night as more Ravens players have tested positive for the virus. At least 18 Ravens players have now tested positive for the virus, including Ravens quarterback and last year’s league MVP Lamar Jackson, according to ESPN.com.

The game was originally scheduled for Thanksgiving night Nov. 26, then earlier this week was moved to Nov. 29 before settling in on Dec. 1. The Ravens’ Dec. 3 Thursday Night Football game against the Dallas Cowboys has also been rescheduled and will  take place on Dec. 7, with Fox airing the game.

The Ravens-Steelers game is the second NFL game to be played on a Tuesday night this season, following the Oct. 13  Buffalo Bills-Tennessee Titans game, which was moved from its original Sunday, Oct. 11 date due to a COVID-19 outbreak within the Tennessee franchise. 

On the college football front, at least 12 games have been cancelled this weekend due to COVID-19, including several games featuring ranked teams. Fourth-ranked Ohio State’s game with Illinois was postponed due to positive COVID-19 test results within the Buckeyes’ program. Other postponed or cancelled games include seventh-ranked Cincinnati against Temple, 11th-ranked Oklahoma and West Virginia and 16th-ranked Wisconsin against Minnesota -- marking the first time those Big Ten teams haven’t played each other in a season since 1906.

College basketball began its 2020-21 season this past week as more than 40 of the 357 Division I programs have paused or have canceled their season altogether due to COVID-19 concerns, including top-ranked schools Baylor and Duke, according to USAToday.com.  

Despite the cancellations, there’s still a lot of live sports action on television this weekend. Third-ranked Clemson will return to the college football field Saturday against Pittsburgh (ESPN), leading a number of rivalry week games that include top-ranked Alabama against 22nd-ranked Auburn (CBS) and fifth-ranked Texas A&M against LSU (ESPN). 

On the pro front, CBS’ Kansas City-Tampa Bay game highlights the league's national afternoon games, while NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast pits Chicago against Green Bay in an NFC North division matchup.

On the pay-per-view front, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson returns to the ring in an exhibition boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. The fight card can be purchased online at $49.99 through FITE.tv and TysonOnTriller.com as well as through traditional cable distributors via In Demand.

The NFL has moved its Baltimore Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers Thanksgiving night game to Sunday after several Ravens players tested positive for COVID-19.

The league said the game -- one of three NFL games scheduled for Nov. 26 -- will be played Sunday afternoon “out of an abundance of caution” after seven Ravens players -- including running backs Mark Ingram and J.K. Dobbins -- tested positive for coronavirus, according to ESPN.com.

The game is the 13th of the 2020 NFL season that has been postponed or moved due to coronavirus-related issues, said ESPN.

The two other Thanksgiving day games -- Houston Texans-Detroit Lions and Washington Team-Dallas Cowboys -- will be played as scheduled.

HBO Max will add the remaining five episodes of HBO's freshman drama series Industry over the Thanksgiving weekend, the network said Monday.

HBO, which has already televised three episodes of the series, will offer the final five episodes on HBO Max Nov. 27, marking the first time the network has offered new episodes of a series for binge viewing in the middle of its season run. The episodes will also be available via HBO On Demand.

HBO will continue to air the next five episodes weekly, with the season’s final two episodes airing back-to-back on Dec. 21, said the network. 

Industry follows a group of young grads looking to make their mark working in a leading international bank in London, said the network. The series stars Myha’la Herrold, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, David Jonsson, Nabhaan Rizwan, Conor MacNeill, Freya Mavor, Will Tudor, and Ken Leung.

NBC will air The National Dog Show on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. It leads out of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

The Kennel Club of Philadelphia holds the annual show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa. Nov. 14-15. No spectators will attend due to COVID. 

John O’Hurley hosts the telecast alongside David Frei. O’Hurley played J. Peterman on Seinfeld and hosted Family Feud. Frei is a judge with the American Kennel Club and a dog show official. 

NBC Sports correspondent Mary Carillo offers her insights during the show. 

Last year a 2-year-old male bulldog named Thor topped the 2,000-dog field to take home the Best In Show title.

Three new breeds will compete for the first time this year, the Barbet, Dogo Argentino and Belgian Laekenois.

The Kennel Club of Philadelphia and its predecessors have been hosting dog shows since 1879. NBC first broadcast The National Dog Show in 2002. 

The Thanksgiving holiday typically marks a respite from the launch of new scripted shows, providing an opportunity for viewers to catch up on all the series that premiered during this year's fall TV season.

Video streaming servies Hulu and Netlfix are bucking the trend, premiering new, high-profile series during a period where football games, movie marathons and holiday fare dominate the television schedule.

Yesterday (Nov. 22) Hulu stepped into the Marvel Comics universe for the first time with the launch of Marvel’s Runaways, which centers on six diverse teenagers who come together to battle a dark and powerful foe – their own evil, supernatural-driven parents.

Today, (Nov, 23) Netflix resurrects the western genre with the debut of the Steven Soderbergh-produced series Godless. The seven-episode series follows a former outlaw on the run from a ruthless gang who finds refuge in a quiet mining town populated only by women.

On Thursday after Thanksgiving dinner, viewers can binge view Netflix’s series reboot of Spike Lee’s 1986 film She’s Gotta Have It. The 10-episode show takes the story of young, independently-minded and strong-willed artist Nola Darling and modernizes it for a new generation of viewers.  

With more than 450 scripted series offered this year, not even the Thanksgiving holiday is exempt from serving up a healthy dish of new, scripted content.  

Amid the swell of uplifting movies, the crunch of live football games, and the endless run of series and movie marathons hitting cable network lineups as the holiday season officially gets underway with Thanksgiving, several poignant documentaries shine a light on more somber events in both the recent and distant past that are worth remembering.

HBO on Monday (Nov. 21) premiered its chronicle the 2013 Boston Marathon terrorist attack in its new original documentary Marathon: The Patriots’ Day Bombing. The documentary recounts the story of the attack – from the events of the day to the death penalty sentencing of accused bomber Dzhorkhar Tsarnaev -- through the experiences of victims and others affected by the event. While an upcoming movie about the bombings, Patriots Day starring Mark Wahlberg, may garner more hoopla and press coverage, HBO’s documentary takes a real-life, unfiltered look at those who were most affected by the event.

Cable in December also will mark the 75th anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1041, attack on Pearl Harbor (pictured), revisiting it through two documentaries airing on History over the Dec. 3-4 weekend: Pearl Harbor: 75 Years Later and Pearl Harbor: The Truth.

Also on Dec. 4, Smithsonian Channel will debut The Lost Tapes: Pearl Harbor, which will feature never-before-seen video and audio from the attack. The documentary has no narration, but instead tells the story of the attack and its aftermath through news reels, private videos and radio reports that took place before, during and after the attack.

Smithsonian in 2017 will mark other historic anniversaries using the same approach to piece together the full story, including the 25th anniversary of the L.A. riots and the 40th anniversary of the Son of Sam Killings in New York.

As we prepare for the holidays and then, shortly after, the swearing in of a new president against the backdrop of what has become an uncertain and somewhat unnerving period in America’s history, such historical documentaries serve as a reminder of the adage “if you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it,” noted David Royle, executive vice president of programming and production for the Smithsonian Channel.

“It’s astonishing to me how interesting it is that when you start going into historical events, you realize how much light they throw on the present,” Royle said.

As we prepare for the holidays, the hope is that we can learn from the lessons of our past to ensure a brighter future for all.

The staff of Multichannel News would like to wish you and yours health, happiness and good fortune on the day we reflect upon our blessings.

Multichannel.com returns with more coverage of the cable industry on Nov. 28, Black Friday.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday!