Thanks to having three games on Thanksgiving Day as well as Sunday in Week 12, the NFL had three of the most watched programs on television for the week ending Sunday, November 25. The most watched program was the Thanksgiving afternoon DC NFL Team-Dallas Cowboys game on Fox that generated an average of 28.7 million viewers making it the number one show as far as viewership for the 2012 fall season.
Coming in at number two was CBS’ Thanksgiving Day game between Houston and Detroit that went into overtime. That game had an average of 27.3 million people watching.
And in the third spot was the Fox late afternoon game featuring the San Francisco 49ers at the New Orleans Saints which brought in just under 25 million viewers.
The Sunday night game on NBC between the Green Bay Packers and New York Football Giants that saw a 20.9 million average viewership making that the number one program among all primetime shows.
So football did rather well during the holiday week. The NFL is smiling. In addition, NFL games finished number one in 29 of the league’s markets. Not too shabby.
NFL TOPS ON TV THANKSGIVING WEEKEND
FOX’s Redskins-Cowboys Thanksgiving Day Game Most-Watched Show of Fall TV Season
Games Rank as Three Most-Watched Shows of Week & Top Two Shows in Primetime
Highest Avg. Thanksgiving Day Viewership Since 1999The Thanksgiving tradition of family, food and football continued this past weekend as fans tuned into NFL games in huge numbers.
The FOX Thanksgiving game (Redskins-Cowboys) was watched by an average of 28.7 million viewers topping all programs for the week (Nov. 19-25) and ranking as the most-watched show of the fall TV season.
The CBS Thanksgiving game (Texans-Lions) was the second most-watched show of the week with an average of 27.3 million viewers — the fourth consecutive CBS Thanksgiving game to top 25 million viewers.
NBC’s Sunday Night Football (Packers-Giants) was the week’s most-watched primetime show averaging 20.9 million viewers with NBC’s Patriots-Jets Thanksgiving night game ranking second in primetime with an average of 19.2 million viewers. NBC’s Thanksgiving night viewership is tops all-time among primetime Thanksgiving games and the most-watched Thursday night program on any network since the Summer Olympics.
The three-game Thanksgiving Day average of 25.6 million viewers is the highest Thanksgiving Day average since 1999 (27.1 million for Bears-Lions and Dolphins-Cowboys).
The FOX Sunday national telecast (mostly 49ers-Saints) was the third most-watched show of the week with an average of 24.9 million viewers.
Thanksgiving week visits to NFL Digital media mobile properties (mobile web, apps, and mobile browser on desktop) including NFL Mobile, were up 67 percent over 2011 Thanksgiving week.
Locally, NFL games topped ratings in 29 NFL markets. Following is the list of NFL markets where football was the top-rated program for the week of Nov. 19-25:
Week of 11/19-25
HH
HH
RTG
Market Game Date
RTG
SHR
Rank
New Orleans 49ers at Saints 11/25/2012
51.3
69
1
Milwaukee Packers at Giants 11/25/2012
43.8
61
1
Pittsburgh Steelers at Browns 11/25/2012
41.2
69
1
Baltimore Ravens at Chargers 11/25/2012
37.9
54
1
Indianapolis Bills at Colts 11/25/2012
36.2
60
1
Boston Patriots at Jets 11/22/2012
34.9
61
1
Denver Broncos at Chiefs 11/25/2012
34.4
68
1
Cleveland Steelers at Browns 11/25/2012
34.2
62
1
Kansas City Broncos at Chiefs 11/25/2012
32.3
60
1
Minneapolis Vikings at Bears 11/25/2012
31.7
63
1
Buffalo Bills at Colts 11/25/2012
30.7
51
1
Chicago Vikings at Bears 11/25/2012
29.9
58
1
Seattle Seahawks at Dolphins 11/25/2012
27.1
56
1
Detroit Texans at Lions 11/22/2012
27.0
57
1
Houston Texans at Lions 11/22/2012
26.5
61
1
Dallas Redskins at Cowboys 11/22/2012
24.7
56
1
Atlanta Falcons at Bucs 11/25/2012
24.3
44
1
San Fran-Oakland 49ers at Saints 11/25/2012
22.7
53
1
St. Louis Rams at Cardinals 11/25/2012
22.6
38
1
Washington, DC Redskins at Cowboys 11/22/2012
22.4
62
1
Phoenix Rams at Cardinals 11/25/2012
22.2
44
1
Nashville Titans at Jaguars 11/25/2012
22.0
38
1
New York Packers at Giants 11/25/2012
18.9
28
1
Cincinnati Raiders at Bengals 11/25/2012
16.9
32
1
Charlotte 49ers at Saints 11/25/2012
17.7
29
1
San Diego Texans at Lions 11/22/2012
16.6
36
1
Tampa 49ers at Saints 11/25/2012
15.8
27
1
Philadelphia Texans at Lions 11/22/2012
15.6
37
1
Miami Seahawks at Dolphins 11/25/2012
15.0
33
1
Source: NFL & The Nielsen Company
That will do it.
