The NFL has placed its top two viewership draws in a Thanksgiving afternoon blockbuster that could post the highest viewership of any 2025 regular-season game, and perhaps set an all-time record on the holiday.

CBS Sports said early Wednesday that the Chiefs will travel to Dallas for the Cowboys’ traditional late-afternoon Thanksgiving slot. The Paramount-owned network will air the game, with the window traditionally holding one of the largest draws of each NFL season.

Last season, that window with a Giants-Cowboys game drew an average audience of 38.8 million, the highest viewership for any game all season, despite both teams ultimately posting losing records. The total for that contest more than doubled the league’s overall per-game average of 17.5 million.

This time, the late-afternoon Thanksgiving game will involve a Cowboys team many are hoping to rebound, particularly following a recent trade with the Steelers for wide receiver George Pickens, as well as the perennially strong Chiefs. Kansas City recently supplanted Dallas as the NFL’s most-watched team.

The all-time viewership record for a Thanksgiving game happened in 2022, with an average of 42.1 million tuning in for a Giants-Cowboys clash that also set a modern-era record for any NFL regular-season game.

In keeping with both teams’ strong national followings, the Cowboys were chosen to face the Eagles in the all-important kickoff game on Sept. 4 on NBC, while the Chiefs will also be participating in the Sept. 5 game in Brazil on YouTube, as well as Amazon’s nightcap of an NFL Christmas tripleheader.

The full NFL schedule release, containing a series of notable changes from last year, will happen Wednesday night. Two other highly anticipated games, a visit by the Chiefs to Buffalo and a Super Bowl LIX rematch between the Chiefs and Eagles in Kansas City, have yet to be disclosed.

Netflix has unwrapped its 2025 Christmas presents from the NFL, and it will be showcasing some of the league’s most popular teams and biggest stories.

The world’s largest streamer unveiled its plans Wednesday for a holiday doubleheader involving the Cowboys visiting the Commanders, followed by the Lions facing the Vikings. With that twin bill, the company will be seeking to beat its 2024 Christmas NFL viewership, which averaged more than 24 million viewers and set a league streaming record.

The two Christmas games will be followed by a separate presentation that night from Amazon involving the Broncos at the Chiefs, the league’s top viewership draw and a team also playing on Thanksgiving this season.

All three games will involve heated divisional rivalries in the late-season windows, and they will help set the eventual playoff field. Beyond that, however, the appeal of the selected teams is clear as the Cowboys remain one of the most popular teams nationally and were picked to face the Eagles in the Sept. 4 kickoff game. The Commanders just had their best season in 33 years, reached the NFC championship game, and recently struck a deal to return to the RFK Stadium property in a new domed venue. 

The Lions and Vikings, meanwhile, took their epic battle for last year’s NFC North division title down to the league’s final regular-season game. CBS Sports will produce the games, with NFL Media handling those duties for pregame, postgame, and halftime programming.

A partial base of all three 2025 Christmas games, however, also resides in a separate doubleheader Fox will show on Saturday, Dec. 20, involving the Eagles-Commanders game and a Packers-Bears clash. The Commanders will play again five days later, with the NFL increasingly using these Saturday games in late December, after the college football regular season, to help set up the Christmas games as the league looks to expand its presence on another major holiday. 

The NFL, meanwhile, remains a foundational element of Netflix’s growing ambitions in live sports and the advertising revenue generated around it. As that happened, the company is increasingly viewed as a safe harbor for investors amid broader economic turbulence, with its tariff-resistant business model and fast-growing revenue

Netflix’s early drops of its 2025 NFL games also follow similar reveals from NBC, Amazon, CBS, and the league’s international plans this season, as well as ESPN and Fox—all of which precede the full release of the schedule Wednesday night. 

With the solidifying of the Thanksgiving and Christmas slates, the Lions, Cowboys, and Chiefs will each play on both holidays.

Monday was one of the most consequential days in recent NBA history.

The Mavericks won the draft lottery and the right to select new franchise cornerstone Cooper Flagg, ESPN reported Giannis Antetokounmpo is “open-minded” about a trade out of Milwaukee, and the Spurs, one of the leading candidates to trade for the Bucks star, improved their asset pool after winning the No. 2 pick. 

One of the overarching themes that emerged following the lottery was that an already mighty Western Conference was getting even stronger. This year, all eight Western Conference playoff teams won 48 regular-season games, while only the top five seeds in the East could match that number.

Later that night, Celtics star Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles tendon, an injury that could sideline him for the entire 2025–2026 season and set back the Eastern Conference powerhouse. 

Long-Term Issue

The gap between the two conferences has been a conversation for decades. Since 2000, the Western Conference has had the better head-to-head record against the Eastern Conference in nearly every season, according to Basketball Reference. 

In that same time frame, a Western Conference team has won the NBA title 16 times to just 9 from the Eastern Conference.

The divide has caused many to suggest changing the NBA’s playoff format to the top 16 teams in terms of record, regardless of conference. ESPN reported in November that Western Conference executives are pushing for the change, but, as expected, there’s resistance from Eastern Conference executives.

For the rule change to happen, it would need to be approved by more than 75% of the league’s owners—at least 23 of 30 teams.

Expansion Effects

The conferences may be subject to realignment in the coming years if the league decides to add expansion teams for the first time since 2004. Commissioner Adam Silver has indicated Las Vegas and Seattle remain the top candidates for an expansion team, and both cities are in the West.

If both teams are added to the Western Conference, there would be an imbalance between the conferences, with 17 teams in the West and 15 in the East. A few candidates to move to the East would be New Orleans, Minnesota, and Memphis.

The Timberwolves, with 23-year-old star Anthony Edwards, would be the ideal choice at the moment if the league wanted to help tip the scales for the Eastern Conference.