From Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 24 to Sunday, Nov. 28, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming reached an audience of 120.7 million people. Between holiday content, sports, late night and more, programming across NBCU’s different platforms bested several of its own records.
All linear programs were either simulcast on Peacock or arrived there the next day. And when it comes to the streamer’s original content, the Nov. 23 debut of “Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin” marks its biggest-ever comedy launch, though exact numbers weren’t provided by NBCU. Previously, that achievement belonged to “Killing It” starring Craig Robinson.
An obvious highlight of the holiday weekend was the 89th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which this year featured a performance by Mariah Carey. With 27 million viewers across the NBC airing and the simulcast on Peacock, it was NBCU’s biggest entertainment telecast of the 2022-23 TV season so far both overall and within the adults 18-49 demographic. And while exact viewership on Peacock wasn’t available, NBCU says that this was the streamer’s most popular “simulstream” event ever.
The National Dog Show by Purina, which also aired on NBC on Thanksgiving Day, was viewed by 11 million people and follows the parade as the No. 2 biggest entertainment telecast in 18-49 and in total viewers.
Football reached new highs as well, with the New England Patriots vs. Minnesota Vikings game bringing in 26 million viewers — the second most-watched primetime Thanksgiving game on record, and a 24% jump from last year’s Thanksgiving game. And with 20.8 million viewers, the Green Bay Packers vs. Philadelphia Eagles game on Nov. 27 was one of the two most-watched Thanksgiving weekend games since 2015.
With the FIFA World Cup happening during the fall as opposed to the traditional summer tournament, Telemundo’s coverage brought in 16.3 million viewers throughout the holiday weekend, with the top games including Argentina vs. Mexico, Brazil vs. Serbia and Spain vs. Germany.
In late night news, both “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” had their highest total viewership in three years on Thanksgiving, with 3.4 million and 1.7 million viewers, respectively. “The Tonight Show” also had its highest 18-49 viewership in three years.
