Bills-Lions sets Thanksgiving Day ratings record
The Detroit Lions may have a below-.500 record on Thanksgiving Day, but that doesn’t stop them from drawing a crowd.
Thursday’s matchup against the Buffalo Bills at Ford Field may have ended in a 28-25 loss, but the 31.6 million viewers that tuned in helped set a couple of ratings records.
“CBS Sports’ presentation of the Bills’ victory over the Lions delivered the most-watched early Thanksgiving Day game on any network on record (since 1988),” Paramount+ said in a release. “The game averaged 31.627 million viewers, up +12% from last year’s comparable game window, and is CBS’ most-watched game of the season.”
The game peaked at 41.98 million viewers.
The Lions have a 37-44-2 record in Thanksgiving games. Their last Turkey Day win was a 16-13 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in 2016.
Detroit hosted its first Thanksgiving Day game in 1934 in a 19-16 loss to the Chicago Bears. Then-team owner George A. Richards struck a deal with NBC to broadcast a national Thanksgiving game on its radio network affiliates.
The Lions have hosted Thanksgiving games ever since — minus a six-year hiatus from 1939-1944 — with a run of 77 consecutive seasons dating back to 1945. They hosted their first nationally televised holiday game in 1953 —a 34-15 defeat of the Green Bay Packers.
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