The primetime Thanksgiving game is still a relatively new phenomenon compared to the traditional daytime affairs in Dallas and Detroit. However, it’s been great for the league and its fans in being able to give some Turkey Day showcases to more teams and more cities around the country. There’s only so many times we can sleep through blowouts in Dallas and Detroit after engaging in the gluttonous devouring of enormous Thanksgiving Day meals, right? By the time we wake up from our 3-4 hour nap, we’re ready for more football.
Thankfully, after two snoozers yesterday, the Bears and Packers delivered a compelling contest in the primetime slot last night. Shockingly, Jay Cutler led Chicago to a road victory in Lambeau Field as the Bears defense held on to deny Aaron Rodgers a winning touchdown in the dying seconds. The probability of those events actually happening in one night means there must have been a major celestial event that we all missed.
NBC released some ratings data this morning and last night’s game was the highest rated Thanksgiving night game since it started nine years ago.
The @ChicagoBears 17-13 win over @packers on NBC posts 14.6/29 overnight — best-ever for NFL Thanksgiving primetime game (since ’06)
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) November 27, 2015
The 14.6/29 overnight for NBC’s Bears-Packers on Thanksgiving is up 17% from last year (12.5/25 for Seahawks-49ers)
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) November 27, 2015
Twin ratings peaks for NBC's Bears-Packers – 15.3 overnight for Brett Favre halftime (10-10:30p ET) & down-to-wire finish (11:30-11:45p ET)
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) November 27, 2015
Top local markets for Bears-Packers on NBC: Milwaukee 44.1/72; Chicago 29.8/57; Minneapolis 28.1/52; Las Vegas 21.0/37; Denver 19.5/40
— NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) November 27, 2015
A great rivalry, two storied franchises, a game that went down to the wire – it was everything NBC and the NFL needed to produce stellar ratings and save what had been a dour schedule of Thanksgiving Day fixtures to that point. But just in case you needed one more piece of evidence that we’re hopelessly addicted to football, the Panthers-Cowboys blowout drew the highest Thanksgiving rating for CBS in 20 years as well.
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