Lions Set Amazon TNF Viewership Record

The Detroit Lions continue to be a popular draw for the NFL's broadcast partners. 

Amazon generated an average of 19.39 million viewers for its Thursday Night Football broadcast on Prime Video on Dec. 4 featuring the Cowboys and the Lions. It stands as the largest such regular-season number since Amazon began streaming TNF in 2022.

In the Week 14 affair, the Lions emerged victorious, 44-30, avoiding losing two straight games for the first time since the 2022 season. In doing so, Dan Campbell's squad kept its playoff hopes alive, too. 

Detroit now sits just a game back of the Chicago Bears for the final playoff spot in the NFC, with four games to go. According to Next Gen Stats, the Lions currently have a 51 percent chance of clinching a playoff berth. If such occurs, it would mark a third straight postseason appearance for Campbell & Co.

The aforementioned viewership figure beat Amazon’s prior record viewership mark, an average of 17.76 million for a Sept. 11 contest between the Commanders and the Packers to begin its 2025 NFL schedule, by nine percent. 

Additionally, the Cowboys-Lions TNF viewership total eclipses the NFL’s season-to-date average of 18.6 million viewers per game across all networks; this itself marks the league’s best average through this point in the season since the 1989 campaign.

The Cowboys, widely billed as “America's Team,” were also one-half of the NFL game that set an all-time viewership mark this season. Dallas’ Thanksgiving Day clash with the Kansas City Chiefs, in fact, drew a record 57.2 million viewers. The telecast occurred on CBS, and was preceded by the Lions’ divisional affair with the Green Bay Packers on Fox. 

The aforementioned Packers-Lions contest also drew a massive audience, averaging a staggering 47.7 million viewers. It became the most-watched early Thanksgiving Day NFL game ever and Fox's most-watched regular season game ever. 

The Lions’ Week 15 matchup with the L.A. Rams should also be a ratings success. The highly-anticipated contest pits Detroit with its former signal-caller Matthew Stafford and his high-flying Rams, which currently own the No. 1 seed in the NFC at 10-3. It'll be another playoff-type game for the Lions, with Detroit direly needing to win to stay alive in the NFC playoff picture.

Fox will telecast the game at 4:25 p.m. (EST) from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Fox Sports’ No. 1 broadcast team, consisting of play-by-play voice Kevin Burkhardt, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady and reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi, are expected to call the must-see tilt.