As Netflix prepares to air its second Christmas Day NFL doubleheader, the streamer is pressing forward with trying to give the holiday special a Super Bowl feel—without Super Bowl-caliber matchups.
Three of the four teams playing in the games on Netflix have already been eliminated from playoff contention: the Cowboys and Commanders, who face off at 1 p.m. ET, and the Vikings, who host the Lions at 4:30 p.m. ET. Detroit (8–7) can only make the postseason as the NFC’s No. 7 seed, and even that is unlikely.
But despite the games not having major playoff implications, Netflix is pulling out all the stops in an effort to build on last year’s Christmas broadcasts that set NFL streaming records with more than 24 million viewers each.
Netflix’s first pregame show begins at 11 a.m. ET live at Washington’s Northwest Stadium, and the second game has its own pregame show at 4 p.m. from Minnesota. The day’s coverage will include more than 20 familiar NFL personalities, including Ian and Noah Eagle, Scott Hanson, Bill Simmons, Kay Adams, Drew Brees, Gene Steratore, and others.
Kelly Clarkson will open Netflix’s broadcast by singing “Underneath the Tree,” and then Snoop Dogg will headline a halftime show during Lions-Vikings dubbed “Snoop’s Holiday Halftime Party” that will include other artists. Last year, Beyoncé was Netflix’s halftime performer. Both Snoop Dogg and Beyoncé have headlined Super Bowl halftime shows in the past, too.
Holiday Benchmark
Viewership of the Christmas Day games will be a test for fans’ appetite for holiday NFL action, even when the games aren’t consequential. In addition to the Netflix games, Amazon’s primetime nightcap features the Broncos (12-3) against the reeling Chiefs.
Just last month, before Kansas City and the Cowboys were eliminated from the playoffs, NFL EVP of media distribution Hans Schroeder told Front Office Sports that he believed Christmas NFL games “will rival Thanksgiving in the not-too-distant future.”
This year’s Thanksgiving Day games saw Chiefs-Cowboys set an all-time regular-season record, drawing 57.2 million viewers on CBS.
