Thanksgiving Holiday Serves Up Ratings Boost to NFL, College Football Telecasts: The Week in Sports Ratings

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Fox Thanksgiving night college basketball telecast tops non-football ratings chart

Rico Dowdle #23 of the Dallas Cowboys catch a pass for a touchdown during the first quarter in the game against the Washington Commanders at AT&T Stadium on November 23, 2023
Rico Dowdle #23 of the Dallas Cowboys catch a pass for a touchdown during the first quarter in the game against the Washington Commanders at AT&T Stadium on November 23, 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)

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. 

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Top-Rated Live Sports Events, November 20-26
DateEventNetworkViewership
November 23 NFL Football: Washington-Dallas CBS 41.76 million
November 23 NFL Football: Green Bay-Detroit Fox 33.69 million
November 23 NFL Football: San Francisco-Seattle NBC 24.78 million
November 26 NFL on CBS (late window) CBS 20.90 million
November 25 College football: Ohio State-Michigan Fox 19.06 million
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Top-Rated Live Sports Events (non-football), November 20-26
Date Event Network Viewership
November 23 college basketball: Michigan State-ArizonaFox 5.18 million
November 22 NBA: Bucks-Celtics ESPN2.02 million
November 22 NBA: Warriors-Suns ESPN 1.99 million
November 21 Concacaf Nations League UniMas 1.61 million
November 22 College basketball: Purdue-Marquette ESPN 1.58 million
November 24 NBA: Spurs-Warriors ESPN 1.58 million
R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.