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1 year ago
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The Dallas Cowboys' huge 45-10 win over NFC East rival Washington Commanders pulled in a huge average audience of 41.4 million viewers, according to figures released on Friday night.
That enormous number of viewers on CBS made the Thanksgiving blowout the third-most watched regular season game in NFL history. It was also the most watched game since Super Bowl LVII in February.
Given that the game was at mid-afternoon during Thanksgiving, it likely benefitted from the lack of competition from other programming, while also serving as background entertainment for countless family dinners, despite being incredibly far from a competitive matchup.
Another huge boost to the broadcast numbers will have been the presence of national treasure Dolly Parton during the halftime show.
The 77-year-old, dressed in a Cowboys cheerleading outfit, wowed the crowd in the stadium and those watching on TV at home as she belted out hits like 9-5 and Jolene.
The Cowboys' Thanksgiving blowout over the Commanders was the third most-watched regular season NFL game ever
Country icon Dolly Parton would also have given a huge boost to the broadcast figures on CBS
The primetime Thanksgiving game between the 49ers and the Seahawks was the second highest viewed in the timeslot
NBC Sports also announced that the later game between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks was the second most-watched primetime Thanksgiving game ever.
The 49ers' 34-13 win over their NFC West division rivals averaged an astonishing 26.9 million viewers across all platforms, despite being a 24-3 blowout at halftime.
Viewership in the contest had peaked during the second quarter when it reached 30.2 million viewers between 9:15 and 9:30 pm.
Only the 2015 Thanksgiving matchup between the Chicago Bulls and the Green Bay averaged higher viewership than Thursday night's contest after pulling in 27.8 million viewers.
The game also became the fourth NFL game broadcast on NBC to receive more than 25 million views.
Prescott and McCaffrey were the stars for their respective team's in the blowout games
Thursday's contest also was the most streamed game ever broadcast on Peacock and the most watched on Telemundo excluding Super Bowl LVI.
Despite the lack of a competitive scoreline in either game millions of viewers were still treated to tantalizing performances from Cowboys QB Dak Prescott and 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey.
Prescott went 22-32 for 331 yards and four touchdowns, while annihilating the Commanders defense.
McCaffrey on the other hand ran the ball 19 times for 114 yards and two touchdowns, while also hauling in five catches for 25 yards.
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