Live sports once again dominated American television over Thanksgiving week, and this time they didn’t just win — they made history. According to Nielsen’s Top 25 Live Sports Events Telecasts for the week of November 24–30, the NFL, college football, college basketball and even the National Dog Show delivered record-setting audiences across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.
CBS led the week with the biggest headline: its Thanksgiving afternoon matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys drew 57.23 million viewers, making it the most-watched NFL regular-season game in league history. The number reinforces the Cowboys’ position as the sport’s — and television’s — most reliable draw, while placing another milestone on the NFL’s increasingly dominant ratings calendar.
Meanwhile, FOX Sports posted its own historic win earlier in the day. The network’s coverage of the Green Bay Packers–Detroit Lions game, simulcast on Tubi, reached 47.7 million viewers. The telecast is now the most-watched regular-season game in FOX Sports history, adding another data point to the network’s strong fall football surge.
NBC also capitalized on the holiday window according to Nielsen. Its Thanksgiving night broadcast of the Cincinnati Bengals–Baltimore Ravens matchup, simulcast on Peacock and Telemundo, averaged 28.4 million viewers — the largest audience ever for the league’s primetime Thanksgiving slot. And on Friday, Amazon Prime Video set a new streaming benchmark, with 16.33 million viewers watching the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles in what is now the most-watched Black Friday Football game to date.
In total, the NFL controlled eight of the Top 12 telecasts across FOX, NBC, CBS, Prime Video, ABC and ESPN/ESPN2.
College football also delivered significant wins. The Ohio State–Michigan rivalry, long one of the sport’s premier television engines, once again proved its value. FOX’s broadcast averaged 18.42 million viewers — the largest college football audience of the season and the No. 5 telecast of the week.
ABC delivered a strong slate as well, highlighted by Texas–Texas A&M (13.04 million, No. 10) and Alabama–Auburn (11.31 million, No. 13). In all, college football secured 12 of the Top 25 slots across five networks, including three games topping 10 million viewers.
College basketball also found its moment in the spotlight according to Nielsen.
Thanksgiving Day produced the sport’s biggest regular-season audiences in more than three decades. Duke–Arkansas drew 6.81 million viewers, the most-watched regular-season college hoops game on any network since the 1992–93 season. Michigan–North Carolina followed closely, delivering 6.50 million viewers — the largest college basketball audience in FOX history.
Beyond the gridiron and hardwood, the National Dog Show continued its Thanksgiving tradition, averaging 12.8 million viewers on NBC and Peacock and landing at No. 11 overall. ESPN also cracked the list with its Timberwolves–Thunder NBA broadcast, which ranked No. 24.
Overall, sports dominated the week’s television landscape, securing nine of the top 10 telecasts — a reminder that even in an era of fragmentation, live games remain the industry’s most powerful engine.
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