How 'Monday Night Football' schedule, Thanksgiving Eve NFL game are related

Back in March, reports revealed that the NFL was exploring adding a Thanksgiving Eve game to the 2026 schedule for the night of Wednesday, Nov. 25. 

On Tuesday, NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder confirmed that fans may want to get used to spending that particular day of the year watching football. 

NFL "actively looking at" scheduling Thanksgiving Eve NFL game

"We’re actively looking at that window," Schroeder said about Thanksgiving Eve, per Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. "We think when we look at the calendar and look at other natural nights that we could aggregate and serve our fans, and deliver a unique-size audience, that’s a night that jumps out to us. Thanksgiving is all about football, family, and friends increasingly, and we think we’re a big part of that. You saw that last year with some of the numbers on [Thanksgiving Day] and really throughout with great numbers on Black Friday, too. So we think this is a natural way we can continue to grow Thanksgiving."

For an article published on March 11, Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal wrote that "ESPN ran a tripleheader of NBA games and had its best Thanksgiving Eve audience in six years" this past fall. Meanwhile, the NFL set viewership records for its Thanksgiving Day matchup involving the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys in 2025. 

As Pro Football Talk's Myles Simmons mentioned in a different piece, the NFL will be eliminating "Monday Night Football" doubleheaders that had been featured on ABC/ESPN properties over the last few seasons. One of the games previously reserved for such a doubleheader will likely be moved to Thanksgiving Eve. 

The NFL believes fans want a Thanksgiving Eve game

"...Our ability to bring people together on that special weekend, something like Thanksgiving Eve becomes a really exciting opportunity to stoke our fans more — to give them a game and a window, which we’ve seen as we’ve done on Black Friday and some of these other places — we’ve seen that growth and that’s the best part," Schroeder added. 

In short, the NFL seems convinced fans want to watch games over seven days from the Sunday before Thanksgiving through the Monday after the holiday. The viewership ratings indicate the league is right, but it's unclear which of the league's media partners will air the standalone Thanksgiving Eve game this fall.