Thanksgiving NFL Matchup Draws 27.8M Viewers, 2nd-Most Ever For NBC Primetime Regular-Season Game – Update
UPDATED, 11:25 AM: The Bears-Packers rivalry game is the gift that keeps
on giving for NBC. The network said this afternoon that the Thanksgiving nailbiter drew 27.8M viewers to become the second-most-watched primetime game ever on the network. It trails only 30.3M who watched the Week 17 “win-and-in” game between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins in 2012, which the Redskins won to claim their first division title in 13 years.
Thursday’s game saw the Chicago hold off a last-minute Green Bay surge to win 17-13 and also feature a halftime event in which legendary quarterback Brett Favre saw his number retired at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field. The 15-minute ceremony, which featured an appearance by the Packers’ iconic Hall of Fame QB Bart Starr, averaged 28.2M viewers.
PREVIOUSLY, 8:24 AM: The Peacock network is undoubtedly thankful today. NBC Sports’ coverage of last night’s Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers game was the best metered-market rating for an NFL Thanksgiving primetime game since 2006. The 14.6/29 overnight for the game from 8:30-11:45 PM ET was up 17% vs last year’s Thanksgiving night game (12.5/25) for the Seahawks-49ers.
The game delivered twin ratings peaks (15.3 each) with the Brett Favre ceremony at halftime (10-10:30 PM ET) and the nail-biting finish (11:30-11:45 PM ET).
It started out strong for NBC with its coverage of the 89th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade delivering the No. 1 rating for any entertainment telecast on the broadcast networks so far this season in metered market households and the second-highest-rated Macy’s parade in over a decade.
From 9 AM-noon, the Matt Lauer-Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker-hosted parade averaged a 12.6/27, the highest for any entertainment non-sports telecast on the Big 4 nets this season. It pulled a 7.0/30 in adults 18-49, up 1% vs last year’s 6.9/28, making it the second-highest demo rating for the parade in 12 years, according to NBC and Nielsen stats. The highest primetime rating on the Big 4 so far this season excluding sports is the 12.5/19 for CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, November 15.
From noon-2 p.m., NBC’s coverage of The National Dog Show Presented by Purina, (5.8/13 in MMH, 3.0/12 in 18-49), romped +15% ahead of last year’s 2.6/10 in the LPMs, for the highest rating ever for the National Dog Show in the 13 years NBC has tracked it in LPM.
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