NFL
NFL Week 13
Fans will have an extra half hour to get settled for this year's Thanksgiving game in Detroit. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images
The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys aren’t going anywhere when it comes to Thanksgiving tradition in the NFL, but the first kickoff on Turkey Day is seeing a slight timing change.
Detroit’s game against the Green Bay Packers will kick off at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, a half hour later than the 12:30 p.m. start time in previous years. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke about the change in April on “The Pat McAfee Show,” saying the move would align the holiday kickoff times with the traditional Sunday kickoff windows.
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The Packers-Lions 1 p.m. kickoff will lead into the Cowboys hosting the Kansas City Chiefs at 4:30 p.m. ET. Then, the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens will close out the night with an 8:20 p.m. kickoff.
Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, told The Athletic that this year’s Thanksgiving viewership could reach record levels.
“Not sure about my prognostication skills,” North said, “but with the records and the way the ratings have been trending this year, I think the NFL has a chance, really, to do the two most-watched regular-season games in NFL history here on Thanksgiving afternoon.”
The Lions have hosted their annual Thanksgiving game since 1934. A few decades later, the Dallas Cowboys joined in on the tradition in hosting a game of their own.
For years, the Lions’ early eyeballs trailed in comparison to the Cowboys’ dinner-time viewership. In 2021, the Cowboys-Las Vegas Raiders Thanksgiving game drew 40.8 million viewers, while the Lions-Chicago Bears game garnered 28.2 million.
However, that gap has shrunk each year since, with the Lions seeing more success on the field and continuing to invest in making its Thanksgiving game a spectacle for the city and the league. Last year’s Thanksgiving games were separated by just over 1 million viewers. The Cowboys-New York Giants game drew 38.8 million viewers while the Lions-Bears game was just behind at 37.5 million.
Last year’s numbers came with Detroit kicking off at 12:30 p.m. ET, a start time that ensured no overlap between the two games, but perhaps played a factor in lower viewership, NFL executive vice president for media distribution Hans Schroeder said the Detroit Free Press.
“We look at the data where we can be informed,” Schroeder told the Free Press. “It told us there’s a lot more fans that are home, that are back from wherever they are Thanksgiving morning to be on their couches and being able to watch. So that felt like a really obvious thing from a media perspective.”
There’s also plenty at stake for the Lions and Packers beyond a Thanksgiving feast. The winner will jump ahead to second in the NFC North standings behind the 8-3 Bears, who play the Philadelphia Eagles on Black Friday in a 3 p.m. ET kickoff.
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Jayna Bardahl is a staff writer for The Athletic. She has worked as an editor and reporter covering Big Ten football and men’s basketball, and was an intern at The Boston Globe, where she covered the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots. Follow Jayna on Twitter @Jaynabardahl
