The NFL has stretched Thanksgiving into a 3-day football holiday this year, with a game on Wednesday night, the traditional 3-game slate on Thursday and a Black Friday matchup the next afternoon. If you're planning a watch party, coordinating a family group chat or trying to figure out which game to put on while the turkey rests, this guide has the full 2026 schedule with kickoff times in both Eastern and Pacific time, plus ideas for making the day fun for the whole group.
The 2026 Thanksgiving week schedule
According to the schedule as reported by NBC Bay Area and CBS Sports, here are the 5 games of Thanksgiving week. Times are listed in ET with Pacific time in parentheses, since a lot of our readers watch from the Bay Area.
- Wednesday, Nov. 25: Green Bay Packers at Los Angeles Rams, 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) on Netflix
- Thursday, Nov. 26: Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions, 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) on CBS, with CBS Sports also listing Paramount+
- Thursday, Nov. 26: Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys, 4:30 p.m. ET (1:30 p.m. PT) on FOX
- Thursday, Nov. 26: Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills, 8:20 p.m. ET (5:20 p.m. PT) on NBC and Peacock
- Friday, Nov. 27: Denver Broncos at Pittsburgh Steelers, 3 p.m. ET (12 p.m. PT) on Prime Video
The NFL schedule was released in May, so double-check your local listings closer to the day in case of any changes.
What makes this year's slate stand out
The Thursday tradition is intact, with the Lions and Cowboys hosting as they do every year. Bears at Lions is a classic NFC North matchup to open the day, and Eagles at Cowboys is one of the league's best-known rivalries, which makes it a natural centerpiece for an afternoon gathering. The night game sends the Chiefs to Buffalo, a matchup between 2 of the AFC's marquee teams that should draw one of the biggest audiences of the week.
The bookends are what make 2026 feel different. A Wednesday night game on Netflix gives you a reason to start the holiday a day early, and the Black Friday game on Prime Video gives anyone who skipped the mall something to watch with leftovers. That's 5 games across 3 streaming services and 3 broadcast networks, so it's worth sorting out logins and antennas a week ahead.
A Pacific time game plan for Bay Area fans
West Coast viewers get a slightly odd rhythm. The Lions game kicks off at 10 a.m. PT, right when most hosts are prepping food, so it works well as background while people arrive. Eagles at Cowboys at 1:30 p.m. PT lines up with the classic mid-afternoon Thanksgiving meal, which can mean a few groans if dinner lands at halftime. Chiefs at Bills at 5:20 p.m. PT is perfect for the post-dinner couch crowd, and it's usually the game people actually sit down for.
If your family eats later, consider flipping the order: snacks during the early game, dinner timed for the end of the Cowboys game, and dessert with the night game. It keeps the football fans happy without making the cook race the clock.
How to run a great Thanksgiving watch party
The best watch parties feel like a group project, and the group chat is where most of the planning happens. Start a thread a couple of weeks out to sort who's hosting, who's bringing what and which game everyone cares about most. If you need a fresh name for the thread, our list of NFL group chat names has plenty of options, and our Friendsgiving group chat names work if the gathering is more friends than family.
A few ideas that keep the day fun for both diehards and casual viewers:
- Run a simple prediction game for bragging rights, like guessing the first team to score or the halftime leader, with the winner picking the dessert order.
- Put together a short football trivia round during halftime of the Cowboys game, mixing easy questions for kids with harder ones for superfans.
- Assign each guest a team for the day, so even non-fans have someone to cheer for.
- Keep a second screen for the group chat, so people who left early can still react to big plays together.
For more ways to keep everyone involved, our roundup of group chat games has ideas that work well between quarters, and if you're running a fantasy league this season, our list of fantasy football group chat names is a good way to refresh the league thread before the playoff push.
Keeping the conversation going after the holiday
Thanksgiving games tend to set up the final stretch of the regular season, and the arguments from Thursday usually carry into December. If your group chat goes quiet after the leftovers run out, our guide on how to revive a dead group chat has a few easy ways to bring it back.
If you'd rather talk football with people who care as much as you do, join the NFL Chatter Tribe for game-day reactions, schedule talk and friendly debates all season. And for in-person fun, follow the Tribe Events calendar on Luma, where we post trivia nights, game nights and other get-togethers around the Bay Area as they're announced.
