There wasn’t anything appealing about a Thanksgiving matchup between the struggling Chicago Bears and winless Detroit Lions. Except for maybe the appeal of seeing rookie quarterback Justin Fields on national television.
But even that wasn’t the case as the country was gifted Andy Dalton vs. Jared Goff as Fields dealt with a rib injury. Still, the lack of an appealing matchup didn’t deter people from tuning on on Thanksgiving.
In fact, Bears-Lions drew a bigger audience than you probably would’ve expected with approximately 26.7 million viewers across all platforms, which was up 14 percent from last years early Thanksgiving game between the Lions and Houston Texans.
Via FOX: The #Bears–#Lions Thanksgiving matchup drew approximately 26.7 million viewers on all platforms, up 14% over last year's 1:00 Thanksgiving game (Texans-Lions).
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 30, 2021
Chicago was able to snap a five-game losing streak with a win over the hapless Lions amid drama surrounding the future of Bears head coach Matt Nagy, as rumors involving Nagy’s firing and unrest in the locker room surfaced.
While the win over Detroit might be enough to save Nagy’s job at present, it’s safe to assume that Nagy won’t be the Bears’ head coach next season following another disappointing season and for the sake of Fields’ development.
