Thanksgiving ratings are expected today

Good things are worth waiting for.

And the NFL, CBS, and Fox are still waiting for the official Nielsen numbers from last Thursday's captive audience games, both of which were inherently captivating.

Via Jon Lewis of SportsMediaWatch.com, the Thanksgiving Day ratings are expected to be released today.

It's a product of the new "Big Data + Panel" approach (they really do need a better name for that), a revolutionary way to calculate out-of-home viewing that has goosed most numbers by 10 percent. It has created a slew of big audiences this year, which also sets a bar that won't be easy to exceed in 2026. But that process takes time; the "fast-nationals" from Nielsen will inevitably be lower than the final numbers.

And so, for what could be record audiences, they're waiting for the final numbers.

It's widely expected that last Thursday's Chiefs-Cowboys game will generate the largest audience for any regular-season game in NFL history. And it's possible the Packers-Lions from that same day will finish second on the all-time list, passing the current record of 42.1 million.

And then there's the reality that the whole process seems amorphous, with the vague potential of someone, somewhere putting a thumb on the scale. That's the practical impact of YouTube suddenly announcing higher numbers for the disappointing free stream of the Week 1 Chiefs-Chargers game from Brazil.