THANKSGIVING: FOOTBALL & TURKEY IN THAT ORDER

Thanksgiving has become a day of the year when friends and family get together in the late afternoon, watch the network telecast of the NFL game, then sit down together for dinner — and turn their television sets off. Thursday was no exception. The overrun of the New Orleans Saints-Dallas Cowboys game on Fox at 8:00 p.m. averaged 15.16 million viewers — but as soon as it was over, the network’s ratings collapsed — with just 5.7 million tuning in for the beginning of The Simpsons Movie at 8:30 p.m. But that figure was outstanding compared with ratings for some of the other programs airing on Thanksgiving night, including the ABC special, Beyoncé’s I Am World Tour, which attracted 3.97 million viewers at 9:00 p.m, and NBC’s The Apprentice, which drew 3.37 million at 10:00 p.m.