Jim Nantz has called many high-profile football games during his career. But when it comes to calling regular season NFL games, there may not be a more highly anticipated game for him in his career than the Week 13 Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Nantz discussed the recently released 2025 NFL schedule during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday, which predictably features the Chiefs playing on CBS in nine of their 17 regular season games, the most of any team on one network.
While other Chiefs matchups throughout the season on CBS are intriguing for Nantz, particularly a Week 4 game against the Baltimore Ravens and a Week 9 game against the Buffalo Bills, it is ultimately Thanksgiving Day against the Cowboys that Nantz believes will “break records” in terms of viewership.
“On Thanksgiving Day, Kansas City at Dallas, you could argue two of the biggest brands right now in the NFL,” said Nantz. “The Cowboys have obviously been the brand, the national team moniker, for 40 years at least. And now Kansas City is trying to lay claim to that. They are trying to get a piece of Christmas Day on a full-time basis. They are well in play anywhere because they are such a brand team and they are so good.”
“But KC and Dallas, to put those two gigantic brands together on the most-watched day of the regular season in the NFL. It’s gonna set records. That’s not what I’m out for it to do. I just hope it’s a great football game. It will be a wonderful matchup to call on Thanksgiving. KC at Dallas, it’s the game we wanted. We wanted KC and Buffalo, also. I think those are the headlines on our schedule.”
Eisen largely concurred, telling Nantz that as long as the big-name players are healthy on both sides leading up to the game, it could just be the most-watched game that Nantz has ever called in the regular season.
“Listen, Jim, clearly you aren’t a clickbaiter,” replied Eisen. “I think we have established that over your career. But I think, and I have spoken with people at the NFL as well when the schedule came out, I think the Chiefs-Cowboys could be the most-watched game that you have ever called in a regular season.”
“I think it has a good chance of that,” added Nantz.
When considering that six of the ten most-watched games of the 2024 regular season included either the Cowboys or the Chiefs, it’s easy to see how Nantz may end up being correct.
The most-watched game in the 2024 regular season came when in the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day matchup against the New York Giants, with an average audience of 38.7 million tuning into the game, which is pretty remarkable considering the game featured backup quarterbacks starting on both sides.
While there is something to be said about the New York market, the Giants still don’t compare to the kind of popularity that the Chiefs bring to the table in their matchup with “America’s Team” in 2025. So even if Nantz isn’t correct and it doesn’t end up breaking viewership records, it should undoubtedly be the most-watched regular season game in 2025.