NFL's Thanksgiving Day Games Set Total Audience Record with 141M Combined Viewers

It turns out that Americans still love watching the NFL on Thanksgiving Day.

The league announced Tuesday the viewership for the three games last Thursday totaled 141 million viewers and averaged 34.2 million per broadcast. Both of those figures set new records.

The Thanksgiving slate opened with the Detroit Lions' 23-20 victory over the Chicago Bears, which proved to be Matt Eberflus' last hurrah as Chicago's head coach.

Bears players and the front office finally reached their breaking point with Eberflus after how badly he mishandled the final seconds of the game. He opted against calling his final timeout despite the offense being slow to line up and get off the snap inside the final 30 seconds.

The Bears almost assuredly decide to fire Eberflus if that happens on a random Sunday afternoon, but it didn't help the situation unfolded in front of such a large audience.

The other two games didn't offer quite the same drama.

The Dallas Cowboys held on for a 27-20 win over the New York Giants. Drew Lock's eight-yard touchdown run with 2:18 remaining made if a one-score game after the Giants trailed by as many as 17 points in the second half. Dallas kept possession and ran out the clock, though.

The Green Bay Packers coasted past the Miami Dolphins 30-17 to bring Thanksgiving Day to a close. The final score is somewhat deceiving considering Green Bay was up by 24 points midway though the third quarter. Jordan Love was an efficient 21-of-28 for 274 yards and two touchdowns.