As we entered the second half of the year, audiences were tuning into major tentpole programming across sports and entertainment. Thanksgiving week, in particular, delivered massive national attention as NFL matchups dominated the holiday’s viewing landscape. It also marked the final sprint of several pivotal elections, including gubernatorial races and the New York City mayoral race, each contributing to an exceptionally active television and advertising environment.
While linear TV remained the dominant platform for these high-gravity moments, streaming continued to gain traction—especially for younger and more digitally oriented audiences. In our latest quarterly television insights report, AdImpact breaks down the viewership data, ad airings, and advertising trends of these marquee Q3 and Q4 moments—and what marketers should take away as they refine their strategies heading into 2026.
Sports & Entertainment: Thanksgiving Football Dominates, Summer Tentpoles Show Mixed Signals
Thanksgiving NFL Viewership Sets the Pace
Thanksgiving football continued its reign as one of the most-watched live TV events of the year, with all three major matchups securing enormous linear audiences:
CBS: Lions vs. Packers — 41.2M average viewers
FOX: Cowboys vs. Chiefs — 43.3M average viewers
NBC: Ravens vs. Bengals — 29.8M average viewers
These games reinforced what advertisers already know: nothing delivers mass, simultaneous reach like NFL holiday programming. The combination of tradition, marquee matchups, and live sports scarcity make Thanksgiving week one of the most valuable moments for brand visibility—particularly for national advertisers and political campaigns targeting broad audiences ahead of the 2026 cycle.
The Summer Blockbuster Shows Signs of Life
The summer 2025 movie season marked the return of major franchises like Mission: Impossible and Jurassic Park, as well as highly anticipated movies from DC and Marvel. These blockbusters led to projections that ticket sales would surpass $4 billion for only the second time since the pandemic. But while big films are still launching, and large audiences still go to theaters, actual sales fell short.
According to Comscore, overall revenues from May 1 to Aug. 24 reached $3.53 billion.
- Disney’s Lilo & Stitch topped the domestic box office with $421M and $1.03B globally—despite ranking fourth in ad airings (8,800).
- Jurassic World Rebirth led all films in advertising with 21,400 airings, finishing second at the box office with $844M.
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ran 15,200 airings but underperformed at $597M.
- How to Train Your Dragon ranked third in both airings (12,200) and box office ($626M).
- Superman had the fewest airings (3,900) among the major films but delivered a strong $354.2M domestic, edging out Jurassic World Rebirth ($339.6M) with significantly less promotion.
2025 Election Cycle
This month’s elections broke multiple political advertising records. New Jersey’s gubernatorial race became the most expensive election in the state’s history and the second most expensive gubernatorial contest ever. Virginia’s attorney general race also set a new high as the costliest attorney general election on record. Together with Virginia’s gubernatorial race, New York City’s mayoral election, and California’s Prop 50 campaign, these contests have driven a historic $1.7B in political ad spending so far in 2025—up 39% from 2023 and 50% from 2021.
New York City Mayoral Race
The general election for the New York City mayoral race saw $26.7M, a 292% increase over what the 2021 general election saw. Former governor, Andrew Cuomo, drew the most ad support at $7.7M, followed by eventual mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at $6.6M.
Spending attacking Mamdani surged in the final weeks of the election. In the last two weeks of the election, 43% of all spending attacked Mamdani. Overall, $7.7M in ad dollars went towards attacking Mamdani, led by outside groups, For Our City ($6.5M), and Vote Common Sense ($6.6M)
Reflecting his frontrunner status, Mamdani was featured in 48% of all broadcast airings targeting the election. While Cuomo did not mention Mamdani in his campaign ads, Sliwa attacked Mamdani in 30% of his broadcast airings. Sliwa also attacked Cuomo, with the former governor being featured in 25% of his broadcast airings.
New Jersey Gubernatorial Race
The New Jersey gubernatorial general election saw $112M, making it the second most expensive gubernatorial general election on record. It marked a 244% increase in spending from the 2021 gubernatorial general election.
Outside groups were the largest driver behind this surge in spending, making up 70% of total spending. Democratic ad support came from the Democratic Governors Association-backed Greater Garden State ($39.6 million), One Giant Leap PAC ($6.6 million) and the NJ LCV Victory Fund ($4.2 million). Republican support, meanwhile, came primarily from Restore NJ ($23.7 million) and Change NJ ($1.4 million).
In terms of campaign spending, Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli ($17.2 million) outspent Democratic nominee Mikie Sherril ($15.8 million).
However, Democrats held a $23 million advantage overall, thanks to spending from outside groups.
Virginia Gubernatorial and Attorney General Races
Spending in the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial race totaled $80.2 million, similar to spending levels seen in 2021.
Campaign spending was the main driver of ad expenditure in the contest, with outside groups only placing $5M worth of ads targeting the election. Democrat Abigail Spanberger outspent Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by $25.4 million, a much larger gap than the $3 million Democratic edge in 2021. Spanberger led in weekly spending from August onwards.
Much of the spending in Virginia occurred in the attorney general race, where spending hit $35.4 million, making it the most expensive attorney general race ever.
Republican Jason Miyares led $11.5 million over Democrat Jay Jones, and outspent Jones throughout the entire campaign.
Miyares also ramped up spending following the revelation of disturbing text messages from Jones to a former colleague on October 3, with 70% of his broadcast ads mentioning the scandal. Miyares even aired digital ads urging Spanberger voters not to back Jones.
Proposition 50 in California
Spending on Proposition 50 in California totaled $142.1 million, with Democrats holding a $60 million advantage.
Weekly opposition spending peaked in mid-September, as the “Yes” side outspent the “No” side by $47 million in October.
Gavin Newsom’s Yes on 50: The Election Rigging Response Act was the highest spender in 2025, totaling $86.7 million, followed by Tom Steyer at $14 million. “Yes” ads featured former President Barack Obama, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while “No” ads featured former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
What This Means for You
Thanksgiving football viewership reaffirmed that live sports remain the most durable and scalable channel for mass reach, with linear continuing to dominate—even as streaming grows, particularly for niche or emerging sports and younger audiences.
As advertisers start rolling out their 2026 plans, live sports should continue to be a major focus. With the Super Bowl and March Madness occurring in Q1, there are plenty of opportunities for advertisers to get involved. For brands seeking a more targeted approach, it’s important to be mindful of the viewership breakdown across platforms. For instance, streaming accounted for 65% of viewers for the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup game, so brands looking to engage with younger females should emphasize a buy on CTV.
For political campaigns, we expect to see more records broken in 2026. With our latest projections estimating $10.8B in political spending for 2026, up from $8.9B in 2022, campaigns will continue relying heavily on broadcast while accelerating investments in CTV, which is expected to grow nearly 2% next cycle. Reaching voters where they are—across both linear and streaming—is essential to maximizing impact.
METHODOLOGY
All viewership data is generated from data collected through AdImpact’s Advanced TV panel of monitored Smart TVs, totaling 23 million TVs. This data includes viewing patterns and devices tracked using automated content recognition (ACR) technology.
The distinction between linear and non-linear content is based on whether it’s viewed via a set-top box, direct cable connection, or antenna (linear) or through a TV native app or OTT streaming device (non-linear). This data specifically focuses on live programming for the event and excludes non-live content.
