From the moment the NFL released the 2025 schedule, it became immediately clear that Thursday’s Chiefs-Cowboys game will be the most-watched regular-season game ever.

The current record came three years ago, on Thanksgiving Day 2022. Then, 42.1 million watched the Cowboys beat the Giants, 28-20. The audience surpassed a Monday night game from 1990 between the 10-1 Giants and 10-1 49ers, which had attracted 41.5 million.

Seven of the nine largest audiences games landed on Thanksgiving. The other happened in 1985, when the Dolphins gave the Bears their only loss of the season on a Monday night in December.

Even if both squads didn’t have their postseason backs essentially against the wall, the game between the franchises that fancy themselves “America’s Team” was destined to set the r

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