Cowboys-Vikings was most-watched Thursday Night Football game ever
By David Rouben
At a time when everyone is calling for the NFL to cut Thursday Night Football, their telecast of Dallas Cowboys vs. Minnesota Vikings drew in record ratings.
One of the biggest stories of this NFL season has been its dip in ratings. While the Presidential Election may have contributed to that at the start of the season, their mediocre Thursday Night Football games have also been a big part of it.
Following a report from Mike Florio that the NFL might cut Thursday night games, they’ve since had to reaffirm their commitment. It’s easy to think why the quality of Thursday games is lower. Football’s a grueling sport, and teams have less time to travel and practice, which results in fewer points scored. In order to save the week’s best matchups for Sunday and Monday night, people are often left with inferior games like Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Tennessee Titans.
Two weeks ago, the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints put on the best Thursday Night Football game of the season, despite seeing Luke Kuechly get carted off. And after the Dallas Cowboys pulled off their 11th win in a row over the Minnesota Vikings, NBC announced it was the most watched Thursday night game ever.
Across all platforms – NBC, NFL Network, NBC Sports, and Twitter – it pulled in 22.2 total viewers, and its TV-only viewership of 21.8 million was also a record. On TV, ratings peaked at 10:45 pm, when 23.5 million people tuned in. On Twitter, there were 2.9 million people watching in total.
This is keeping in line with a regular pattern. Prior to this week, the Cowboys owned four of the NFL’s five most-viewed games this season. Even though people don’t like to say it, Dallas is America’s team, if only because they draw eyeballs. And with two rookies in Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott leading the charge, it’s hard to admit they’re not compelling to watch.
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No matter how much people complain about it, Thursday Night Football isn’t going anywhere. They have a huge TV deal attached to it, plus a live streaming partnership with Twitter. Not to mention, every team has color rush uniforms designed specifically for Thursday night.
You’ve also got to admire the fact that 22 million people tuned into a Thursday night game days after Mike Florio reported they could pull the plug on it. As long as they have good matchups like Cowboys vs. Vikings, instead of bad ones like Jaguars vs. Titans, people will watch it.