NFL Reportedly Feels Chiefs vs. Cowboys Thanksgiving Game Will Set Viewership Record

The NFL is reportedly hoping its decision to schedule a Thanksgiving Day game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys makes history this year.

The Athletic's Richard Deitsch explained the league's thought process in its scheduling decision, stating that there's a feeling that the all-time viewership record is in reach.

"The NFL made a strategic decision to schedule the Chiefs versus the Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. The game will air at 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS and stream live on Paramount+," Deitsch wrote. "The thinking, based on talking to a number of people at different networks, is that the NFL thinks the game can set a record for the most-viewed NFL regular-season game in history."

That title currently belongs to the 2022 Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Cowboys and New York Giants, which drew an eye-popping 42.1 million viewers.

Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, told Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports that NFL executive vice president Hans Schroeder "challenged the team to say if we were ever going to do it, wouldn't this be the year to take the Ferrari out of the garage?" Once it was decided that Kansas City vs. Dallas would be the featured matchup on Thanksgiving Day, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell "obviously was excited," per North.

"He knows what we've become as part of the fabric of this country on that day," North said of Goodell. "And you get a lot of casual fans watching Thanksgiving. You know, when you're starting to do 40-45 million viewers for an NFL game, those maybe aren't the diehards all season long watching every game no matter what."

The Chiefs are coming off a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, which stopped them from completing the first three-peat in modern NFL history. The Cowboys finished 2024 with a disappointing 7-10 record and failed to make the playoffs. It can be expected that both teams will be motivated to establish supremacy in 2025, creating an intriguing matchup that will be enjoyed over Thanksgiving meals.

Deitsch stated that he feels the game between Kansas City and Dallas "has an outside shot at reaching 50 million viewers if it’s close in the final quarter." He pointed out that Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel Technology provides better data for out-of-home viewership, boosting the viewership numbers for the NFL and all sports leagues.

After landing the matchup, it's no surprise that CBS is excited over the prospect of drawing a historic audience.

"K.C. and Dallas on Thanksgiving, the league’s two biggest brands and viewership drivers, in the annual most-viewed time slot," CBS Sports president David Berson said, per Deitsch.