Jim Nantz: Chiefs-Cowboys Thanksgiving Day Game is ‘Going to Set Records’

"That’s not what I’m out for it to do, but I just hope it’s a great football game, but it will be a wonderful matchup to call on Thanksgiving."

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Earlier in the month, the National Football League released the 2025 regular-season schedule that includes marquee matchups allocated to its media rights partners. One game in particular that stood out is a Thanksgiving Day tilt between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys, placing two of the most popular teams in the league against one another. CBS Sports will broadcast the game, presumably with its lead announcing team of play-by-play voice Jim Nantz, analyst Tony Romo and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson, who recently called the Chiefs’ AFC Championship Game victory over the Buffalo Bills that drew an average of 57.7 million viewers on CBS.

Nantz recently appeared on The Rich Eisen Show to discuss the interconference matchup that could feature superstars Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott, Travis Kelce and Micah Parsons facing off. Within his appearance, Nantz made the argument that the Chiefs and Cowboys are the two biggest brands in the league at the moment. In fact, he stated that the Chiefs are trying to go after the “America’s Team” moniker that has been synonymous with the Cowboys for many years. CBS Sports will broadcast eight additional Chiefs games throughout the season, the most among NFL media rights partners, as it enters its 66th year of coverage.

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“KC and Dallas, to put those two gigantic brands together on the most-watched day of the regular-season in the NFL, it’s going to set records,” Nantz said. “That’s not what I’m out for it to do, but I just hope it’s a great football game, but it will be a wonderful matchup to call on Thanksgiving. KC at Dallas – it’s the game we wanted. We wanted KC and Buffalo also, and I think those are the headliners on our schedule.”

The NFL set ratings records on Thanksgiving Day last season with the most-watched average viewership across its three-game slate in the history of broadcasts on the holiday. Aside from the Chiefs-Cowboys game, the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions will square off in the early game on FOX, and NBC will cap off the day with the Cincinnati Bengals facing the Baltimore Ravens. Eisen voiced that he believes the Chiefs-Cowboys game could be the most-watched regular-season game Nantz has ever called, which is currently the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day matchup against the Washington Commanders in November 2023.

Earlier in the interview, Nantz also expressed his gratitude for being able to call a rivalry game featuring the Chiefs against the Bills. The two teams will square off on Sunday, Nov. 2 in a Week 9 matchup televised live on CBS. The last time the two franchises faced off in the regular season, the game averaged 31.2 million viewers on CBS, the most-watched game of the NFL regular season to that point.

“Romo and Wolfson and I, we’ve had this matchup, I believe, seven of the last eight times, and Buffalo wins these regular-season matchups, but Kansas City wins in the playoffs, and that’s precisely what happened last year with the AFC title game being at Arrowhead and the Chiefs winning that game in a nail biter,” Nantz said. “So look, it will be one of the games of the year.”

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