NFL Broadcast Partners Want You to Know People Like to Watch Football

CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN saw huge ratings increases for the regular season.

The NFL's domination in the sports world only increased in 2025. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. Nielsen changed the way it counts viewers in 2025, so sports across the board enjoyed nice ratings increases. Naturally, since this country is ruled by football, all of the NFL’s broadcast partners saw massive bumps in viewership.

And those networks would like you know all about it. These were the subject lines of emails that landed in my inbox on Monday afternoon:

• “CBS SPORTS LEADS ALL NETWORKS WITH RECORD-SETTING 2025 NFL REGULAR SEASON”
• “FOX NFL Rings In Best Regular Season Since 2015”
• “ESPN’s Monday Night Football records second-most-watched regular season in the company’s 20-year history of airing the iconic franchise”
• “RECORD-SETTING SEASON AS “SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL” ON NBC AND PEACOCK AVERAGES 23.5 MILLION VIEWERS & PACES AS PRIMETIME’S #1 SHOW FOR UNPRECEDENTED 15TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR”

Who knows what the ratings increases would be without Nielsen changing its methodology, but I do know the NFL should be thanking Nielsen, DraftKings, FanDuel and fantasy football on a regular basis.

I’m not going to break down all the numbers because I don’t think you care. But I will tell you that these were the 10 most watched regular-season games of 2025.

1. Chiefs-Cowboys, Week 13, CBS: 57.3 million
2. Packers-Lions, Week 13, Fox: 47.7 million
3. Eagles-Chiefs, Week 2, Fox: 33.8 million
4. Chiefs-Bills, Week 9, CBS: 30.9 million
5. Chiefs-Broncos, Week 11, CBS: 29.0 million
6. Eagles-Bills, Week 17, Fox: 28.8 million
7. Steelers-Lions, Week 16, CBS: 28.6 million
8. Cowboys-Eagles, NBC: 28.3 million
9. Bears-Packers, Week 14, Fox: 27.9 million
10. Bengals-Ravens, Week 13, NBC: 27.9 million

2. NFL Films has done its usually stupendous job once again with this recap of Sunday’s wild Ravens-Steelers game.

The wildest finish of the year, but make it cinema 🎥@InsideTheNFL | @Steelers pic.twitter.com/m5XuIUjlFE

— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) January 6, 2026

3. I normally find fan reaction videos lame, boring, unoriginal and played out. However, when you set a compilation of Ravens fans reacting to Tyler Loop’s missed field goal on Sunday night to the Beatles’ classic, Let It Be, which you can watch here, the video becomes much more enjoyable.

4. I would do anything for the NFL to give us the kind of mic’d up action during a game. Listen to Matthew Stafford get annoyed with head coach Sean McVay for droning on and on while calling in a play.

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5. Only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo can make a seamless transition from Tom Brady to Billy Joel.

"This is ridiculous, that the guy who is gonna call a game this weekend is gonna pick the Raiders coach and the quarterback and the No. 1 pick." – Chris Russo is not happy with Tom Brady pic.twitter.com/BjH4223aF3

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 7, 2026

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina is the Sixth Annual Year-End Extravaganza episode with Peter Schrager and Andrew Perloff. We covered everything from our Sports Media Person of the Year to the most significant sports media stories to the best shows, podcasts and games of 2025.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: In yesterday’s Traina Thoughts, I told you about the WWE Vault YouTube channel recently uploading a four-hour “Rowdy” Roddy Piper compilation video. In another must-watch upload from WWE Vault, here’s a compilation of “Craziest Golden Era Talk Show Moments.”

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.