Thanksgiving football, Big 10 rivalry game score in ratings

Even at a time football typically dominates television ratings, Thanksgiving week was notable

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Even at a time football generally dominates television ratings, the long Thanksgiving Day weekend was notable.

CBS turkey day telecast of the Dallas Cowboys against the Las Vegas Raiders reached 37.8 million viewers, the biggest audience for an NFL regular season game since Thanksgiving 1993, the Nielsen company said.

Meanwhile, Michigan's victory over Ohio State in the Big 10's annual rivalry game was seen by 15.9 million people on Saturday afternoon. That's the most-watched regular season college football game since LSU-Alabama two years ago, Nielsen said.

It was also the biggest audience for a college football game on Fox ever, the network said.

For the week in prime time, NBC led with an average of 6.8 million viewers. CBS had 4.8 million, Fox had 3.4 million, ABC had 3.2 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 990,000 and Telemundo had 840,000.

ESPN led the cable networks, averaging 2.83 million viewers in prime time. Fox News Channel had 2.11 million, Hallmark had 2.01 million, Paramount had 1.18 million and TBS had 888,000.

Nielsen did not immediately report evening news ratings.

For the week of Nov. 22-28, the top 20 programs in prime time, their networks and viewerships:

1. NFL Football: Buffalo at New Orleans, NBC, 19.38 million.

2. NFL Football: Cleveland at Baltimore, NBC, 16.23 million.

3. “NFL Post-Game,” CBS, 15.19 million.

4. “NFL Pregame,” NBC, 12.24 million.

5. “The OT,” Fox, 11.7 million.

6. NFL Football: N.Y. Giants at Tampa Bay, ESPN, 10.35 million.

7. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 8.48 million.

8. “Yellowstone,” Paramount, 7.89 million.

9. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.56 million.

10. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.57 million.

11. College Football: Oklahoma at Oklahoma St., ABC, 6.49 million.

12. “One Last Time: Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett,” CBS, 6.38 million.

13. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.34 million.

14. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.33 million.

15. “The Equalizer,” CBS, 5.94 million.

16. “Dancing With the Stars,” ABC, 5.64 million.

17. “Survivor,” CBS, 5.54 million.

18. “NFL Pregame,” ESPN, 5.43 million.

19. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (Monday), Fox News, 5.05 million.

20. “FBI,” CBS, 5.04 million.