John Kosner Told Eric Prisbell of The Dallas Morning News that the Kansas City-Dallas Thanksgiving Day Game Would Become the NFL’s Highest-Rated Regular Season Game … Which It Did!

Original Article: Dallas Morning News, by Eric Prisbell, November 25th, 2025

Flip on CBS for the Dallas Cowboys-Kansas City Chiefs Thanksgiving showdown and stay for the history: The afternoon game between the sport’s two most popular brands is widely expected to be the most-watched NFL regular-season game in history.

“The Chiefs at Cowboys, in a must-win situation for both teams, playing late afternoon/early evening eastern time on Thanksgiving is a dream scenario for the NFL and CBS,” John Kosner, who led digital media at ESPN from 2003-2017 and is president of media consulting firm Kosner Media, told The Dallas Morning News.

“I see it getting to 50 million viewers — or within margin of error — and becoming the most-watched NFL regular-season game ever.”

From three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes to America’s Team, the matchup has all the trappings of a ratings bonanza for CBS, especially with both the Chiefs and Cowboys staging late-game comebacks Sunday to resuscitate their respective playoff hopes. Add in the potential for an even larger holiday audience than usual with Taylor Swift fans tuning in for the mere chance to catch her image in an AT&T Stadium suite.

The 2022 Thanksgiving game between the Cowboys and Giants currently holds the mark for the largest viewing audience, attracting 42.1 million. That surpassed the memorable 1990 Monday Night Football game between the Giants and 49ers, which had 41.5 million viewers.

Allow none other than Jerry Jones, a man who knows a thing or two about marketing his franchise, to set the stage for one of the most attractive Thanksgiving games in memory.

“Number one, there is no question that your team, the Cowboys, have a lot of interest at this time, and no question that the story of the Kansas City Chiefs this year is really interesting and would have me watching no matter what part of it I’m involved in,” Jones said during his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM).

“This is what you dream of ... There could be as many as 70, 80 million people watching. It’s a unique time: We’ve got fans that normally may not watch an NFL football game. I spent a lot of time getting these Cowboys out [with publicity]. I’ll put the Cowboys in a poodle magazine.”

Seventy or eighty million? Wouldn’t be the first time Jones is guilty of hyperbole. In fact, 50 million is an enormous audience.

“Fifty million is a huge number — that’s like NFC/AFC championship game numbers,” Ed Desser, the prominent sports media consultant and former longtime sports media executive with the NBA, told The News. “For fun, I’ll take the under.”

Already high interest in the matchup has only grown on the heels of the Cowboys’ 21-point come-from-behind victory against the Eagles on Sunday, breathing new life into their slim playoff hopes.

Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports, told The News, “There will be a dozen viewers at our home for the game. The Dallas win over the Eagles set the stage for their showdown with the Chiefs.”

What’s more, there is another element that should bolster viewership figures: Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel methodology better accounts for out-of-home and streaming viewers.

“Chiefs-Cowboys, they [NFL] hit the jackpot with that,” Bill Simmons said this week on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “That’s one of the most entertaining matchups we could come up with.”

The three-game Thanksgiving slate this year is especially appetizing, offering a bevy of alluring storylines and matchups. Starting with Green Bay at Detroit, concluding with Cincinnati at Baltimore and showcasing the Cowboys-Chiefs as the irresistible must-watch afternoon main course, people will watch — tens of millions of people.

If there was a belief in the past that even mediocre matchups would draw large Thanksgiving viewership numbers, NFL folks on Park Avenue now appear to be making a concerted effort to super-size viewership through can’t-miss matchups.

Mission accomplished.

“There’s a growing sense that the league shouldn’t take its Thanksgiving audience for granted,” veteran media reporter John Ourand wrote in his Puck newsletter, The Varsity. “We’ve seen more marquee matchups in recent years, and that is what we’re getting once again on Thursday.”