The NFL ’s Thanksgiving afternoon games provided a ratings feast for Fox and CBS.

Both networks set ratings records for their games — not just for Thanksgiving, but for any regular-season NFL game they’ve ever aired. The audiences for the Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions matchup on Fox and the Kansas City Chiefs-Dallas Cowboys game on CBS rivaled those for last season’s conference championships, which typically are the biggest games (and TV broadcasts) of any given year behind the Super Bowl.

Fox’s early afternoon broadcast of the Packers’ win over the Lions averaged 47.7 million viewers, per Nielsen, making it the network’s biggest regular-season game ever. It’s also the most watched Thanksgiving game on record in the early broadcast window and was up about 27 percent from CBS’ early

See Full Page