The traditional Thanksgiving doubleheader was down for the NFL this year, with the league seeing its lowest two-game average audience since '16. The doubleheader on Fox and CBS averaged around 26.7 million viewers, down from 29.9 million last year. The '19 was boosted by 32.6 million for Bills-Cowboys, which was CBS' best Thanksgiving audience in 27 years. CBS this year averaged just 23.4 million for the Texans' blowout of the Lions in the early window, marking the net's smallest Thanksgiving window since Titans-Lions in '08 (18.6 million). Bears-Lions on Fox in the early afternoon window last year averaged 27.1 million. This year, Fox averaged 30.3 million viewers for Washington-Cowboys. That is relatively close to what the same matchup drew on Fox two years ago (30.5 million). There was no NBC primetime game on Thanksgiving this year, as Ravens-Steelers had to be moved due to COVID-19. While down from last year, the Washington-Cowboys game marked the most-watched telecast of any kind since the Super Bowl in February.
IRON AGE: CBS averaged 6.7 million viewers for Alabama's blowout win over Auburn on Saturday afternoon, marking the least-watched Iron Bowl since '12 (3.9 million). Last year, the game was a close, high-scoring affair between two ranked squads, with CBS averaging 11.4 million.
NOTES: The National Dog Show on NBC averaged 12.3 million viewers on Thanksgiving, up from 11.3 million in '19....Telemundo averaged 1.45 million viewers for Club America-Chivas last Wednesday, marking the network's best game audience for the Liga MX season to date.
The chart below lists viewership for select recent sports telecasts.
| TELECAST |
DATE
|
NET
|
TIME (ET)
|
VIEWERS
(000)
|
| NFL: Washington Football Team-Cowboys (Thanksgiving) |
11/26
|
Fox
|
4:38-7:45pm
|
30,333
|
| NFL: Texans-Lions (Thanksgiving) |
11/26
|
CBS
|
12:36-4:15pm
|
23,389
|
| NFL: Chiefs-Buccaneers |
11/29
|
CBS
|
4:37-7:46pm
|
23,115
|
| "Sunday Night Football": Bears-Packers |
11/29
|
NBC
|
8:23-11:16pm
|
16,483
|
| NFL: (singleheader) |
11/29
|
Fox
|
1:03-4:05pm
|
15,172
|
| NFL: (regional) |
11/29
|
CBS
|
1:03-4:25pm
|
13,461
|
| "Monday Night Football": Rams-Buccaneers |
11/23
|
ESPN
|
8:14-11:26pm
|
12,612
|
| National Dog Show |
11/26
|
NBC
|
12:00-2:00pm
|
12,267
|
| College football: Auburn-Alabama |
11/28
|
CBS
|
3:30-7:00pm
|
6,656
|
| College football: Notre Dame-North Carolina |
11/27
|
ABC
|
3:35-7:00pm
|
6,075
|
| College football: LSU-Texas A&M |
11/28
|
ESPN
|
7:13-11:02pm
|
4,154
|
| College football: Penn State-Michigan |
11/28
|
ABC
|
12:01-3:29pm
|
4,093
|
| College football: Iowa State-Texas |
11/27
|
ABC
|
12:00-3:35pm
|
3,567
|
| National Dog Show (repeat) |
11/26
|
NBC
|
8:00-10:00pm
|
3,212
|
| College football: Pitt-Clemson |
11/28
|
ABC
|
3:29-7:00pm
|
2,999
|
| College football: Oregon-Oregon State |
11/27
|
ESPN
|
7:44-11:26pm
|
2,801
|
| College football: Nebraska-Iowa |
11/27
|
Fox
|
1:04-4:36pm
|
2,694
|
| College football: Kentucky-Florida |
11/28
|
ESPN
|
12:01-3:14pm
|
2,511
|
| College football: Texas Tech-Oklahoma State |
11/28
|
Fox
|
12:06-3:30pm
|
2,122
|
| College football: Utah-Washington |
11/28
|
ABC
|
7:36-11:02pm
|
2,017
|
| College football: Stanford-Cal |
11/27
|
Fox
|
4:36-7:45pm
|
1,754
|
| Liga MX: Cruz Azul-Tigres UANL |
11/26
|
Univision
|
7:30-10:00pm
|
1,644
|
| Liga MX: UNAM Pumas-Pachuca |
11/26
|
Univision
|
10:00pm-12:08am
|
1,532
|
| "College GameDay" |
11/28
|
ESPN
|
9:00am-12:01pm
|
1,515
|
| Liga MX: Club America-Chivas |
11/25
|
Telemundo
|
9:30-11:41pm
|
1,447
|
| College football: Arizona-UCLA |
11/28
|
Fox
|
8:06-11:20pm
|
1,392
|
| Liga MX: Puebla-Leon |
11/28
|
Univision
|
7:30-9:57pm
|
1,377
|
| "Monday Night Countdown" |
11/23
|
ESPN
|
6:00-7:00pm
|
1,377
|
| Bowling: PBA All-Star Clash |
11/29
|
Fox
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
1,353
|
| College basketball: Gonzaga-Kansas |
11/26
|
Fox
|
1:32-3:30pm
|
1,253
|
| "Sunday NFL Countdown" |
11/29
|
ESPN
|
10:00am-1:00pm
|
1,117
|
| UFC Fight Night |
11/28
|
ESPN
|
11:02pm-1:02am
|
1,055
|
| College basketball: Auburn-Gonzaga |
11/27
|
Fox
|
11:00am-1:00pm
|
1,026
|
| College football: Maryland-Indiana |
11/28
|
ESPN2
|
12:00-3:23pm
|
952
|
| Figure Skating: ISU Grand Prix |
11/29
|
NBC
|
4:00-6:00pm
|
921
|
| College basketball: Villanova-Arizona State |
11/26
|
ESPN
|
9:39-11:45pm
|
901
|
| Premier League: Leeds-Everton |
11/28
|
NBC
|
12:30-2:30pm
|
718
|
| U.S. Ski & Snowboard (taped) |
11/28
|
NBC
|
4:30-6:00pm
|
683
|
| Figure Skating: Las Vegas Spectacular (taped) |
11/28
|
NBC
|
2:30-4:00pm
|
518
|
| U.S. Ski & Snowboard (taped) |
11/28
|
NBC
|
3:00-4:30pm
|
514
|
MLS Eastern Conference Semifinal:
Revolution-Orlando City |
11/29
|
ABC
|
3:00-5:00pm
|
421
|
