What’s On This Weekend in TV Sports (Dec. 25-Dec. 27)

LeBron James (L) and Giannis Antetokounmpo will play on Christmas Day in separate games on ESPN and ABC
LeBron James (L) and Giannis Antetokounmpo will play on Christmas Day in separate games on ESPN and ABC (Image credit: NBA)

Sports fans will have a lot of TV sports content to choose from during the Christmas holiday weekend. 

ESPN and ABC will offer a combined five NBA games as part of the league’s traditional Christmas Day offering. ESPN will air the New Orleans Pelicans-Miami Heat at noon, followed by ABC’s Golden State Warriors-Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics games. ESPN’s primetime coverage will include the Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers telecast and the Los Angeles Clippers-Denver Nuggets contest. 

The NFL will also take the field on Christmas Day for a week 16 matchup between  the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints, which will be aired by Fox and NFL Network, as well as streamed by Amazon Prime Video. 

On Saturday, Prime Video will exclusively stream the San Francisco 49ers-Arizona Cardinals NFL game, while NFL Network will telecast the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Detroit Lions game as well as  the Miami Dolphins-Las Vegas Raiders contest. NBC’s Sunday Night Football game will feature the Tennessee Titans against the Green Bay Packers. 

Also Read: Amazon Gets Exclusive for NFL's Dec. 26 49ers vs Cardinals Game

College football will continue its run of Bowl games this weekend with Friday's Camellia Bowl (Marshall vs. Buffalo) on ESPN, and Saturday’s First Responder Bowl (Louisiana vs UTSA) on ABC, Lending Tree Bowl (Western Kentucky vs Georgia State) on ESPN and Cure Bowl (Liberty vs Coastal Carolina) on ESPN.

Other sports events include CBS' college basketball telecast on Saturday featuring top-ranked Gonzaga against Virginia and NBC's Saturday afternoon Chelsea-Arsenal Premier League soccer telecast.

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.