NFL flexes Tampa Bay-Dallas into primetime in Week 15, Cowboys on NBC three times in December

With the Dallas Cowboys guiding the NFL into a second-half ratings renaissance following downward spiraling numbers in the first half, it’s not a surprise to see the ‘Pokes get flexed into primetime in Week 15 on December 18. NBC announced during halftime of Sunday night’s Carolina-Seattle game that the Tampa Bay-Dallas game was flexed from its original 1 p.m. ET time slot into the Sunday night primetime window.

The original game in Week 15’s Sunday Night Football window, Pittsburgh at Cincinnati moves up to 1 p.m. ET on CBS. In addition, we have a Saturday night game, Miami at New York Jets which will be produced by CBS for NFL Network.

In Week 14, the Cowboys also appear next week on Sunday Night Football as they take on the New York Giants. With Dallas starting Week 13 against Minnesota on Thursday Night Football, it means that NBC will have the Cowboys appearing on the Peacock three times this month.

To top it all off, Dallas makes another primetime appearance in Week 16 for ESPN’s Monday Night Football’s season finale.

It means that Fox, the home of the NFC, will not have its top attraction on the network since Thanksgiving and won’t have them on until Week 17 on New Year’s Day when Dallas travels to Philadelphia.

So here is Dallas’ December schedule:

Thursday, December 1: Dallas at Minnesota (NBC)
Sunday, December 11: Dallas at New York Giants (NBC)
Sunday, December 18: Tampa Bay at Dallas (NBC)
Monday, December 26: Dallas at Detroit (ESPN)

And with the flexes in Week 15, this is how the schedule shapes up and of course, all times are Eastern. The flexes are denoted in bold:

Thursday, December 15

Saturday, December 17

Sunday, December 18

Monday, December 19

So NBC gets three consecutive Cowboys games and Dallas has four straight primetime games with five national windows from Thanksgiving all the way through the month of December. How ’bout them Cowboys?

[NFL Communications]