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Bear Digest

Record Setting Turkey Day

The Bears win over Detroit was part of a huge day for the NFL on television, even with two teams competing who had losing records.
Gene Chamberlain|
Record Setting Turkey Day
Record Setting Turkey Day

The Bears remain big TV attractions even with a 4-7 record and very little hope for a playoff berth.                                                                                                         T The average viewership for the three NFL games on Thanksgiving was 29.7 million, which was the highest since 1998 and the Bears' 16-14 win over the Detroit Lions drew a viewership of 26.75 million.

This was a 14% improvement over the early game in 2020. This was all the more surprising considering it was a matchup of an 0-9-1 team against a 3-7 team.

The Cowboys game with the Las Vegas Raiders right after the Bears game drew the largest audience for a regular-season NFL game in almost 30 years, 37.84 million on CBS. That was a 23% increase over last year's late afternoon game. It was the most people to watch any NFL regular-season game since 38.4 million watched the Cowboys and Miami Dolphins on Thanksgiving Day in 1993. That was the famed "Leon Lett" game.

Later, the prime-time game on NBC between the Buffalo Bills and the New Orleans Saints drew viewership of 19.38 million, down 7% from the 2019 game. There was no prime-time game last year because it was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols. 

The Thanksgiving Day ratings weren't the only sign the Bears remain a big draw on TV. Their game in Green Bay for Sunday night, Dec. 12 could have been flexed to a game between two competitive team.

However NBC has decided to keep that matchup at Lambeau Field for SNF.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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