Acme Packing Company
About two weeks ago, the NFL decided to flex the Green Bay Packers’ Week 14 matchup with the Chicago Bears from the early afternoon time slot into the late afternoon. The reason was simple: to get a critical NFC North matchup in front of more eyeballs.
Now that TV broadcast maps are out, it’s clear why they made that call. According to the map from 506sports.com, nearly every TV market in the USA will see Packers-Bears on FOX in the late window. Instead of competing with three other games at noon central, the only other game on FOX at the same time is the Rams visiting the Cardinals, a contest with little significant playoff impact due to the Cardinals’ 3-9 record.
Instead, Packers-Bears will decide the NFC North division lead, and its move into the late afternoon indeed puts it on the local FOX affiliate in every market outside of Southern California and Arizona.
Here’s a look at the map for the late window on FOX:
13 days from Sunday will find the Packers playing their rematch with the Bears in Week 16, and the NFL just announced that game will be in prime time on Saturday, December 20th. That game will also be broadcast on FOX but will be part of a nationwide Saturday doubleheader, following up an NFC East battle between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders.
In the early window this Sunday, there will be a different game that decides the lead in a North division. The Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers will play on CBS at 1 PM Eastern/noon Central, and that game gets by far the widest distribution of any CBS game. That one will be on across most of the state of Wisconsin (aside from the far western parts that fall in the Twin Cities media market); meanwhile, the southern part of the state will see Bengals-Bills as the other early game on FOX while the northern and western portion will get Commanders-Vikings.
