The NFL is considering adding a game the day before Thanksgiving to this season’s schedule as it continues to explore additional broadcast windows.
The added day to the schedule could come as early as the upcoming 2026 season, on Wednesday, Nov. 25, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
It would mark the latest move by the NFL in recent years to deviate from its traditional schedule in order to add games on or around national holidays.
The NFL also played on Black Friday the past three seasons and has seen steady audience growth. Last year’s game between the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles on Amazon Prime Video averaged 16.3 million.
Commissioner Roger Goodell told the Wall Street Journal in December that the league is considering adding a second game to its Black Friday schedule.
“Every offseason we look for new opportunities to best serve our fans in the schedule-making process,” the league said Wednesday in a statement to The Associated Press. “As Commissioner Goodell has said, Thanksgiving and NFL football have become synonymous and given the continued growth of fan interest around our games on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, looking for additional opportunities tied to this special holiday is exciting for us to explore.”
The three Thanksgiving Day games are among the most watched during the regular season. Last year’s slate averaged 44.7 million viewers, surpassing the 2024 mark of 34.5 million.
The late-afternoon game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys on CBS averaged 57.2 million, making it the most watched NFL regular-season game on record. The previous record was 42.1 million for the 2022 game between the Cowboys and New York Giants.
The NFL also played two games on Christmas Day in 2024, when Dec. 25 landed on a Wednesday. The league had a Christmas tripleheader last season when Dec. 25 was on a Thursday.
A Thanksgiving Eve game in 2026 would set up a nine-day stretch that includes seven days of NFL games.
If the league goes ahead with a Thanksgiving Eve game, the teams likely would have a bye the previous week.
Thanksgiving Eve would give the league nine major broadcast windows to fill. There also would be the spotlight games in the early and late afternoon Sunday windows, Sunday night and Monday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
