A year ago, the Kansas City Chiefs played a Thanksgiving Day game so popular that it reset the record books. The team’s 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys averaged more than 57 million viewers on CB and became the most-watched regular-season game in NFL history. As many as 61 million viewers tuned in as the fourth quarter wound down.
The NFL is good at basic math, so it’s no surprise to see them placing Patrick Mahomes and company back on its Thanksgiving slate.
According to NFL reporter Jordan Schultz, Kansas City will make a trip to Buffalo to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday as the Bills host the Chiefs as the nightcap of a scheduled triple-header. Kickoff is set for 7:20 p.m.(CT) after NFL fans have already taken in games featuring the Chicago Bears versus the Detroit Lions (12:00 p.m.) and the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Cowboys (3:00 p.m.).
After setting viewership records a year ago, it was natural for the Chiefs to return as a Thanksgiving nightcap once again.
The Chiefs-Cowboys match-up was always going to be a major draw. Both teams are the darlings for NFL broadcast partners these days, given Dallas’ well-established, generational fan base and Kansas City’s status as the league’s best team in the last decade. Having household names like Mahomes and Travis Kelce involved doesn’t hurt either.
But it is interesting that the game was so popular. The NFL had to be asking itself why it waited so long to put K.C. on such an obvious stage. For most of their history, the Chiefs were strangers to Thanksgiving Day games. The franchise didn't play on the holiday at all between 2006 and 2025, and even going back to the beginning, Kansas City had logged only 11 Thanksgiving appearances ever.
The Cowboys and Detroit Lions own Thanksgiving. Detroit has hosted games since 1934, and Dallas since 1966. Every other team just rotates through the third, floating prime-time slot that the league added in 2006.
The 2026 matchup carries an early asterisk: Mahomes' health is a live question heading into the season, and a Chiefs team is being given the benefit of the doubt after having finished 6-10 last year. But the NFL isn’t making its schedule with regard to current standings. It’s doing so for the 57 million people who tuned in last November. A holiday showdown featuring Josh Allen and Mahomes in Buffalo is an ideal sequel to last year’s blockbuster, and the league is more than ready to cash the check.
Add us as a preferred source on Google