The NFL has made it clear in recent years that it’s coming to take over Christmas Day from the NBA, but basketball will have the superior slate entering this year’s holiday.

Nine of the 10 NBA teams playing on Christmas have a record of at least .500, including the top six teams in the highly competitive Western Conference. The only team with a losing record are the Mavericks, though they’ve won seven of their last 11 and 2025 No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg has recovered from a slow start.

The NBA’s brightest stars are all expected to be available on Christmas. That includes aging veterans like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant; those in their prime like Luka Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nikola Jokic; and the future faces of the league like Victor Wembanyama and Flagg.

On the other hand, the NFL’s three-game Christmas Day slate features just two winning teams, with only one currently in the playoffs (Broncos). Quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Jayden Daniels will not be available, both having been ruled out for the remainder of the season.

Here is the Christmas Day schedule (all times ET):

NFL

• 1 p.m. Cowboys vs. Commanders (Netflix)
• 4:30 p.m. Lions vs. Vikings (Netflix)
• 8:15 p.m. Broncos vs. Chiefs (Prime Video)

NBA

• 12 p.m. Cavaliers vs. Knicks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2)
• 2:30 p.m. Spurs vs. Thunder (ABC, ESPN)
• 5:00 p.m. Mavericks vs. Warriors (ABC, ESPN)
• 8:00 p.m. Rockets vs. Lakers (ABC, ESPN)
• 10:30 p.m. Timberwolves vs. Nuggets (ABC, ESPN)

Despite the NBA’s stronger slate, don’t expect it to outdraw the mighty NFL in the ratings. The NFL still consistently draws at more than 10 million viewers per game, a figure the NBA only surpasses during the Finals.

A prime example is in 2022, when the second of the NFL’s first three-game Christmas slate was between the Rams and Broncos, both of whom were 4–10 entering the holiday. The game still drew 22.6 million viewers on CBS and Nickelodeon, more than any NBA game since the 2017 NBA Finals.

But the NBA’s strong slate should help curb the migration of viewers to the NFL and continue its robust ratings streak into 2026. Following a 2024–25 season—which was filled with criticism about declining ratings—the NBA has recovered in its first two months with new partners. 

The league is averaging 1.81 million viewers across ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Prime Video this year, its most since 2017 and up 27% compared to last year. The NBA also announced Monday more than 87 million people have watched NBA games in the U.S. this year, up 89% from the same point last season.

Last LeBron Christmas?

James has not confirmed whether this will be his last season, but his recent comments could be interpreted as hints that the end may be near. He said Sunday that he’d “much rather be at home with family” than playing in his 20th Christmas Day game. 

“Obviously, I’m gonna be completely honest, I would like to be home on the couch with my family all throughout the day. But our number is called, so we have to go out and perform and I look forward to it,” James said.

Last Christmas, James, who turns 41 next week, famously defended the NBA on Christmas in its battle with the NFL.

“I love the NFL, but Christmas is our day,” James said after a Lakers win over the Warriors.

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.

TV ratings for the first round of the College Football Playoff last weekend were down nearly 7% compared to last season as stiff competition from the NFL once again proved to be too much to handle.

The CFP’s four first-round games averaged 9.9 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, and TNT Sports, compared to an average audience of 10.6 million on the same platforms in 2024. The NFL’s Week 16 Saturday doubleheader averaged 18.4 million viewers on Fox.

Here’s the full breakdown:

• Alabama-Oklahoma, 8 p.m. (Friday): 14.9 million (ABC/ESPN)
• Miami–Texas A&M, noon: 14.8 million (ABC/ESPN)
• Tulane–Ole Miss, 3:30 p.m.: 6.2 million (TNT Sports)
• Eagles-Commanders, 5 p.m.: 15.5 million (Fox)
• James Madison–Oregon, 7:30 p.m.: 4.4 million (TNT Sports)
• Packers-Bears, 8:20 p.m.: 21.3 million (Fox)

Alabama’s thrilling 34–24 comeback victory over Oklahoma is the most-watched first round CFP game on record. But Oregon’s 51–34 blowout of JMU is the lowest CFP audience of any round on record.

The combination of lopsided victories for Power 4 teams over Group of 6 opponents overlapping with consequential late-season NFL action was the perfect storm for TV ratings in the latter half of Saturday. The average audience of Fox’s two NFL games (18.4 million) more than tripled the two CFP matchups played around the same time on TNT Sports (5.3 million).

The four first-round CFP games in 2024 and 2025 that didn’t face competition from overlapping NFL games averaged roughly 14.3 million viewers, a higher mark than all but four other college football games during the 2025 season, including conference championship games. But the four first-round games the past two seasons that have overlapped with NFL games have averaged 6.4 million.

The CFP is unlikely to avoid NFL competition under its current format and scheduling strategy. The NFL has scheduled games on mid- and late-December Saturdays for years and has no plans of changing that.

If the CFP expands to 16 teams, that would mean four more first-round games to find TV windows for. In 2026, ESPN begins its six-year, $7.8 billion contract extension for CFP media rights, which the network has had since the CFP’s inception in 2014. TNT Sports sublicensed two first-round games this season and last year, and is expanding its portfolio to five games next year, including two quarterfinal matchups and one semifinal game.