Christmas is all about giving, right? Well the NFL gave the NBA an absolute ratings butt-whooping.
Traditionally, the National Football League has stepped aside and let the National Basketball Association have the honors of filling up Christmas Day with nonstop basketball action. However, after Christmas fell on a Sunday last year, and the NFL stuck to airing games on their normal day, they had a thought…
What if the NFL regularly took a slice out of the Christmas Day pie?
So in 2024, the NFL made a deal with Netflix to stream two matchups: the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens versus the Houston Texans. They aired the two matchups in the afternoon (wish they would have put one of them at night) and both ended up being snooze-fests.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs handled the Steelers 29-10, and the Ravens absolutely embarrassed the Texans as they cruised to a 31-2 victory. For the NFL’s debut Christmas Day games, they couldn’t have gone much worse. And how did all of the NBA games go?
With five games spread out throughout the day, there was not a contest that had one team win by more than 10 points. Every single game was close, and the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors (LeBron versus Steph) provided an instant classic game which concluded with back-to-back game tying and game winning three point shots.
The excitement of the game, which saw the Lakers win 115 to 113, prompted LeBron James to say this:
“I love the NFL, but Christmas is our day.”
LeBron to the NFL: pic.twitter.com/6rvo5OncTt
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 26, 2024
As far as competitive games and providing a watchable product, the NBA definitely one-upped the NFL. But the ratings that have come out since Christmas Day concluded didn’t tell the same story.
Each NBA game had an average viewership of 5.25 million people. The NBA even boasted that it was the most-watched Christmas Day in five years, and saw an 83% uptick compared to last year. The NFL? They threw out two terrible, no good, very bad games and drew in a staggering 24.2 million average viewership.
The NFL vs NBA Christmas Day numbers are out.
What do you think? pic.twitter.com/TkOFZXZWJ4
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) December 27, 2024
Not even close…
So sorry LeBron, it looks like Christmas Day actually belongs to the NFL now. Not even a multitude of nail-biting contests could stop the NFL from taking over. And many now see the NFL’s decision to have Netflix take the NFL games was incredibly intentional… because it stopped viewers from being able to easily flip back and forth between the NFL and NBA games.
The release of the ratings, as well as the games themselves, encouraged many on social media to crack jokes about the NFL taking over the NBA’s big day:
The NFL stealing the NBA’s ratings on Christmas Day. pic.twitter.com/J5bxz4yuqs
— Cullen Roche (@cullenroche) December 25, 2024
The NFL to the NBA on Christmas Day. pic.twitter.com/BYz5HfYUT7
— Michael Hauff (@TheFFRealist) December 25, 2024
You know why everyone used to watch NBA games on Christmas?
Because the NFL wasn’t on.
— Bruce Irons (@BruceIronsNFL) December 26, 2024
The NFL to Lebron
“We love the NBA, but Christmas is our Day now.” https://t.co/2aNK4U6ENT pic.twitter.com/KeTfddPdae
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) December 27, 2024
Can’t wait for the ratings to show that on a premium streaming service with 2 beatdowns, NFL did better in the ratings than the NBA cause the players care as much about the regular season as the players do, not at all. https://t.co/2j8agPgSyS
— Kyle Henning (@kthen16) December 26, 2024
Yeah… that guy was right.
