The NFL Owns Thanksgiving and Other Things From Week 13

This comes from the National Football League. During Thanksgiving Weekend, also known as Week 13 in the National Football League, the games on Thanksgiving Day and on the Sunday following the big holiday averaged big viewerships. I mean, we’re talking massive. And this is not in primetime either, this is in the late afternoon timeslots.

CBS was the big winner having the late afternoon windows on both Thanksgiving Day and on late Sunday afternoon, December 1. Its Thanksgiving Day between Oakland and Dallas averaged an amazing 31.7 million viewers making it the most watched program for the week, the most watched fall show of the season and the most watched NFL game thus far.

For the late Sunday afternoon window which mainly featured the Denver Broncos at the Kansas City Chiefs, CBS garnered an average of 28.1 million viewers which made that game the third most watched program of the week.

Sandwiched in-between CBS was Fox’s Thanksgiving game between the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions which averaged 28.3 million people.

NBC’s primetime Thanksgiving game with the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Baltimore Ravens averaged 21.1 million viewers and the Sunday Night game which pitted the New York Giants against the DC NFL Team got an audience of 17.7 million.

Here’s the NFL’s press release.

NFL shieldNFL TOPS ON TV THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

CBS’ Raiders-Cowboys Thanksgiving Day Game Most-Watched Show of Fall TV Season
Games Rank as Three Most-Watched Shows of Week

Highest Avg. Thanksgiving Day Viewership Since 1998

The Thanksgiving tradition of family, food and football continued this past weekend as fans tuned into NFL games in huge numbers.

The CBS Thanksgiving game (Raiders-Cowboys) was watched by an average of 31.7 million viewers topping all programs for the week (Nov. 25- Dec. 1) and ranking as the most-watched show of the fall TV season.

The FOX Thanksgiving game (Packers-Lions) was the second most-watched show of the week with an average of 28.3 million viewers.

The CBS Sunday national telecast (mostly Broncos-Chiefs) was the third most-watched show of the week with an average of 28.1 million viewers.  NFL programming accounted for eight of the top 10 shows of the week.

NBC’s Steelers-Ravens Thanksgiving night game was the week’s most-watched primetime show averaging 21.1 million viewers and NBC’s Sunday Night Football (Giants-Redskins) drew an average of 17.7 million viewers.

The three-game Thanksgiving Day average of 27.2 million viewers is the highest Thanksgiving Day average since 1998 (29.7 million for Steelers-Lions and Vikings-Cowboys).

Thanksgiving week visits to NFL Digital media mobile properties (mobile web, apps, and mobile browser on desktop) including NFL Mobile, were up 80 percent over 2012 Thanksgiving week.

Locally, NFL games topped ratings in 27 NFL markets last week. Following is the list of NFL markets where football was the top-rated program for the week of Nov. 25 – Dec. 1:

Week of 11/25 – 12/1  

 

HH

HH

RTG

Market Game

Date

RTG

SHR

Rank

Kansas City Broncos at Chiefs 12/01/2013 51.5 77

1

Denver Broncos at Chiefs 12/01/2013 46.3 78

1

Pittsburgh Steelers at Ravens 11/28/2013 38.3 63

1

Baltimore Steelers at Ravens 11/28/2013 37.8 64

1

Cincinnati Bengals at Chargers 12/01/2013 36.5 56

1

Indianapolis Titans at Colts 12/01/2013 36.4 61

1

Buffalo Falcons at Bills 12/01/2013 34.2 51

1

Boston Patriots at Texans 12/01/2013 33.9 63

1

Minneapolis Bears at Vikings 12/01/2013 33.8 66

1

Detroit Packers at Lions 11/28/2013 32.8 62

1

Milwaukee Packers at Lions 11/28/2013 32.4 67

1

Cleveland Jaguars at Browns 12/01/2013 30.0 54

1

Chicago Bears at Vikings 12/01/2013 29.6 57

1

Philadelphia Cardinals at Eagles 12/01/2013 27.6 50

1

Charlotte Buccaneers at Panthers 12/01/2013 27.0 52

1

Dallas Raiders at Cowboys 11/28/2013 26.0 58

1

Washington, DC 49ers at Redskins* 11/25/2013 26.0 43

1

Houston Patriots at Texans 12/01/2013 24.7 51

1

Nashville Broncos at Chiefs 12/01/2013 24.6 38

1

San Fran-Oakland 49ers at Redskins* 11/25/2013 22.9 43

1

Jacksonville Jaguars at Browns 12/01/2013 22.7 39

1

New Orleans Broncos at Chiefs 12/01/2013 22.2 34

1

Phoenix Cardinals at Eagles 12/01/2013 20.6 42

1

San Diego Broncos at Chiefs 12/01/2013 17.1 38

1

Seattle Broncos at Chiefs 12/01/2013 16.5 35

1

Miami Dolphins at Jets 12/01/2013 16.4 34

1

St. Louis Rams at 49ers 12/01/2013 16.2 28

1

* Local affiliate & ESPN combined
Source: NFL & The Nielsen Company

There you have it.

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013. He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television. Fang celebrates the three Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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