A Shift in America’s Most Iconic Football Holiday
Fans planning to settle in for Thanksgiving football will notice a major change this year: the traditional early kickoff has been moved. For more than four decades, the first game of the holiday began mid-morning on the East Coast, but that routine has now shifted to a later start time. The league has pushed the opening matchup to the early afternoon window, aligning it with standard Sunday scheduling.
The Detroit Lions continue their role as the traditional hosts of the early Thanksgiving game, but the kickoff has moved to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. This marks the first significant timetable change in the Thanksgiving slate since the league introduced a nighttime matchup nearly two decades ago. The adjustment is notable not only for breaking a long-standing tradition, but also for reshaping how fans, broadcasters, and teams experience the holiday.
The reasoning behind the change is tied to consistency in game scheduling across the season. By moving the Lions’ matchup into a time slot that mirrors the regular Sunday early-afternoon window, the league aims to streamline its broadcast model. The change also allows fans on the West Coast to avoid an unusually early start. Instead of tuning in before mid-morning, those viewers will now see the first game at a more conventional time.
Why the NFL Is Comfortable Making the Change
This adjustment to the early window is significant because it affects one of the NFL’s most reliable television events. Thanksgiving games frequently draw some of the highest viewership numbers of the entire year, often surpassing even primetime regular-season matchups. Despite that level of success, the league is confident it can increase viewer appeal while modernizing the schedule.
The last time the NFL altered its Thanksgiving day events, the change produced dramatic results. When a third game was added to the lineup nearly twenty years ago, it helped fuel new broadcast interest and provided fans with a full slate from afternoon through the evening. This season’s change represents another step in the same direction: aligning the holiday with the broader structure of the regular season without removing any of its traditional elements.
Detroit has been central to Thanksgiving football since the 1930s, and the league is clearly aware of the history tied to its holiday scheduling. Still, the NFL rarely makes changes of this magnitude without a clear competitive or commercial reason. Turning the holiday into a slate that mirrors the regular season is a strategic decision that keeps the tradition intact but updates it for current viewing habits.
The Matchups Driving Record-Setting Viewership
The move in scheduling comes at a moment when Thanksgiving games continue to break broadcast records. NFL matchups on the holiday routinely dominate television ratings, often producing the most-watched regular-season game of the year. With the popularity of teams such as Dallas and Kansas City, the league anticipates that this year’s games could challenge or even surpass existing viewership milestones.
The Thanksgiving tripleheader remains intact: Detroit hosts the opening matchup, followed by the Dallas Cowboys in the afternoon window, and the late primetime game concludes the holiday slate. Each of these contests carries major appeal, especially with star quarterbacks returning from injury and high-profile teams appearing in the lineup. The decision to adjust game times does not reduce the importance of the day; in fact, it reinforces the NFL’s position as the central entertainment destination for the holiday.
The league’s strategy reflects confidence in its product, its teams, and its audience. Rather than holding on to an older schedule format purely for sentimental reasons, the NFL is aligning tradition with modern viewer expectations. And with the recent history of massive television audiences on Thanksgiving, the league expects its new kickoff window to generate even bigger numbers.
A New Era for a Long-Running Tradition
Thanksgiving has evolved from a two-game showcase into one of the NFL’s most valuable broadcast properties. The addition of the night game years ago reshaped the holiday into a full-day viewing event. Now, the first kickoff being pushed later brings the schedule in line with the broader structure of the regular season. The games remain the same. The fan interest remains enormous. But the league continues to fine-tune its product to match what audiences want.
With multiple nationally televised matchups and marquee teams on the field, the NFL expects this year’s Thanksgiving schedule to push the holiday’s long-established ratings dominance even further. The new kickoff strategy marks a turn in tradition, but it also keeps the spirit of the day firmly in place: football that starts early, lasts all day, and draws millions of viewers across the country.
