Sarni's Scrolls: NFL provides turkey day ratings treats

 By Jim  Sarni

The NFL posted huge TV ratings on Thanksgiving Day and a main reason was out-of-home viewing.

Sports Media Watch provides the numbers:

■ Commanders-Cowboys (CBS) had 41.76 million viewers, the second-largest regular season NFL audience on record, a whopping 17.25 million out-of-home (41%).

■ Packers-Lions (Fox) averaged 33.70 million viewers, the largest audience on record for a Lions Thanksgiving game, an impressive 10.37 million out-of-home.

■ 49ers-Seahawks (NBC) averaged a Nielsen-measured audience of 24.78 million, 7.26 million out-of-home (29%).■ Black Friday: Dolphins-Jets (Amazon), the first NFL game on the day after Thanksgiving, averaged 9.61 million viewers, topping only Panthers-Bears two weeks earlier as the least-watched NFL game on Amazon this season. Room for improvement. While all sporting events have benefited from the inclusion of out-of-home viewing, that benefit is particularly pronounced on holidays like Thanksgiving, which feature a greater-than-usual level of communal viewing.

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The NBA In-Season Tournament is in the quarterfinals, after all the point differentials were computed.

■ East No. 3 Boston Celtics at East No. 2 Indiana Pacers, 7:30 p.m. ET Monday (TNT)

■ West No. 3 New Orleans Pelicans at West No. 2 Sacramento Kings, 10 p.m. ET Monday (TNT)

■ East No. 4 New York Knicks at East No. 1 Milwaukee Bucks, 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday (TNT)

■ West No. 4 Phoenix Suns at West No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers, 10 p.m. ET Tuesday (TNT)

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Chaos is alive in the College Football Playoff.

What if this happens, and it's entirely possible:

■ Michigan (13-0), Big Ten champion

■ FSU (13-0), ACC champion

■ Alabama (12-1), SEC champion

■ Oregon (12-1), Pac-12 champion

■ Texas (12-1), Big 12 champion

■ Georgia (12-1), lost to Alabama

■ Washington (12-1), lost to Oregon

■ Ohio State (11-1), lost to Michigan

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Looking ahead

Georgia visits Alabama on Sept. 28 in one of the top regular-season SEC matchups next season, according to ESPN.

The SEC plans to unveil the entire slate for the expanded 16-team league sometime in December.

2024 Big games

■ Aug. 31 -- Miami at Florida

■ Aug. 31 -- Notre Dame at Texas A&Ml

■ Sept. 14 -- Texas A&M at Florida

■ Sept. 21 -- Tennessee at Oklahoma

■ Sept. 28 -- Georgia at Alabama

■ Oct. 19 -- Alabama at Tennessee

■ Oct. 19 -- Georgia at Texas

■ Oct. 26 -- LSU at Texas A&M

■ Nov. 9 -- Alabama at LSU

■ Nov. 16 -- Texas at Arkansas

■ Nov. 23 -- Alabama at Oklahoma

■ Nov. 30 -- Texas at Texas A&M

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Futurism's Maggie Harrison reports that Sports Illustrated has been publishing stories written by A1, attributing them to writers who don't exist, complete with A1-generated mugshots and bios.

SI was quick to dismiss the report as only relating to licensed content of product reviews — and insisted those articles were written and edited by humans.

■ TMG stories, including this one, are written entirely by humans.

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Mayonnaise baths.

French Fries showers.

Cheez-Its downpours.

The Bowl/Food gimmick pushes the envelope with the announcement that the Pop-Tarts Bowl (Dec. 28 in Orlando) will feature "an edible mascot."

The Pop-Tarts Bowl Mascot will run around the field before and during the game and interact with fans. After the game, it will "transform into a game-winning snack for the victors."

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ETC.

■ Mark Cuban is selling majority stake in the Mavericks to billionaire casino owner Miriam Adelson but will retain full control of basketball operations. Why? Speculation is Cuban wants a new arena with a gambling operation.

■ Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, who fired coach Frank Reich on Monday, has dismissed five coaches in four years between the Panthers and MLS Charlotte FC... Fox Sports analyst Greg Olsen would be interested in the Panthers' job if he were approached, sources told "The Athletic."

■ Jim Nantz and Tony Romo have Sunday off after working two games last week. CBS has a weak slate of five games.

■ Oakland, which lost the A's to Las Vegas, will get a new baseball team... the B's for Ballers who will join the independent Pioneer League.

■ The U.S. could host back-to-back World Cups. The Americans will host the 2026 men's World Cup with Mexico and Canada. They also are bidding on the 2027 women's World Cup with Mexico.

■ Investment interest in UK women's soccer has never been higher, according to Front Office Sports.

■ The New York Mets hired outgoing Bloomberg CEO M. Scott Havens as the new President of Business Operations, extending a trend in sports in which media executives are increasingly being tapped for senior leadership roles.

■ Delaware is moving from FCS to FBS and joining Conference USA in 2025.

■ LeBron James became the NBA's all-time minutes leader, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (66,300)... in the same game he sustained the largest margin of defeat in his NBA career (138-94 to the 76ers).

■ Howard Stern asked actor Bradley Cooper to choose between winning an Oscar or the Eagles, his favorite team, winning the Super Bowl. Bradley did not hesitate. The Eagles.

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■ "Dancing With The Stars" ended with all five teams advancing to the semifinals. None of the celebrities -- Xochitl Garcia, Charity Lawson, Arianna Madix, Jason Mraz and Alyson Hannigan -- were eliminated.

■ The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be lit on Wednesday night (8-10 p.m., NBC) ... The White House Christmas decorations are up -- 98 trees, 33,800 ornaments, 142,400 lights. It took 300 volunteers a full week to install.

■ No "The Late Show" this week as Stephen Colbert recovers from surgery for a ruptured appendix.

■ Travis Kelce's collaboration track with brother Jason, "Fairytale Of Philadelphia," has risen to No. 1 on the Rock Digital Song Sales and Holiday Digital Song Sales charts two weeks after its debut, Billboard reported.

■ Country singer Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” topped Apple Music’s global song chart in 2023.

■ Savannah Guthrie is bringing her love of faith to fans through a new book: "Mostly What God Does."

■ "Twilight" director Catherine Hardwicke would cast Jenna Ortega and Jacob Elordi in a reboot.

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THEY SAID IT

■ "It's just unfortunate fans think they can get away with saying anything and personally, I won't allow it." ‐- Clippers guard Russell Westbrook after getting into a verbal altercation with a fan during Tuesday's 113-104 loss to the Nuggets in Los Angeles.

■ "It sucks. It f—ing sucks. SI was the land of legends. Deford and Jenkins and Hoffer and Rushin. [Some] of the greatest sports writers of the past century. But this is what we’ve done with the continued corporatization of media. These companies don’t care about content. At all. It’s entirely clicks and ads and ads and clicks.” -- Former SI staffer and noted author Jeff Pearlman in a tweet.

■ "I have frozen my penis. For real. I had to lie in [athlete's tent] for 10 minutes to warm it up." -- Swedish cross-country skier Calle Halfvarsson during World Cup event in Finland.

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Jim Sarni, BC Class of '69, is a former sportswriter for The Boston Globe and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He resides in Fort Lauderdale and watches a lot of television. If you have a comment or an opinion, we'd love to hear from you Jksarni@aol.com