Getty Image / Adam Glanzman
The Patriots – Cowboys late afternoon contest this past Sunday may have featured some atrociously poor weather and a scoreline of just 13-9, but that didn’t keep folks from watching it.
According to Austin Karp of The Sports Business Journal, 29.5 million people tuned in to watch Tom Brady and Dak Prescott duel it out this past Sunday.
Fox's Cowboys-Patriots telecast finished with 29.5 million viewers on Sunday. Best for NFL regular-season game since last year on Thanksgiving (Cowboys-Redskins 30.5 million viewers). Cowboys-Pats is easily best for 2019 season to date, passing 24.9 million for CBS' Pats-Eagles
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) November 26, 2019
The game pulled in 4.6 million more viewers than the Patriots – Eagles contest earlier in the year, which is no small number.
Karp did a little more digging to compare it to some of the most-watched regular season games over the past handful of seasons and it turns out it was the most-watched game since Thanksgiving weekend in 2014.
1) This is a big number. Likely among top 10 telecasts — on all of TV — for 2019.
2) Looking at just Sunday game windows, this is the best for any NFL regular season telecast since 11/30/2014 https://t.co/g0AiUvNA2U— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) November 26, 2019
Sure, when you look at the two teams playing it’s no surprise that the viewership numbers are massive, but 29.5 million is a preposterous number when you compare it to regular season games in the past.
It turns out that when the most-watched team in all of North America (the Cowboys) take on Tom Brady and Bill Belichick’s Patriots people like to tune-in. It certainly didn’t hurt the number that these teams don’t regularly meet up in the regular season or that the game came down to the wire.
Dallas plays host to the Bills on Thanksgiving afternoon and it will be interesting to see the numbers from that game. With those two teams with those rabid fanbases meeting up on a national holiday, chances are the viewership number will smash the Pats – Cowboys number.