The NFL faces a choice for its captive audience games: opt for a less appealing game with higher ratings or sacrifice a prime-time matchup for massive viewership. This year, the league chose to showcase the Chiefs at Cowboys for the late-afternoon Thanksgiving game, which is expected to shatter the record for the largest regular-season audience, previously set at 42.1 million in 2022. With the Chiefs being the top draw in American sports and the Cowboys maintaining their “America’s Team” status, anything under 45 million viewers will be seen as a disappointment, with 50 million possible.
