Projecting the 2026 NFL schedule's most-watched national TV games

From a TV perspective, the NFL is coming off a record-breaking 2025 season:• The Thanksgiving game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys was the most-watched regular-season game ever, with more than 57 million viewers.The Chiefs have dominated the top of the national TV ratings rankings in the Patrick Mahomes era, and presuming he’s healthy and playing after his knee injury and offseason recovery, the Chiefs’ slots on the national TV schedule will continue to loom among the top audience drivers (as you will notice below).Advertisement