INGLEWOOD, United States, October 20, 2026: Irish rock band U2 will return to the NFL halftime stage after nearly 25 years, performing during the league’s first Thanksgiving Eve game between the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams on November 25. The performance at SoFi Stadium will celebrate 50 years since the band’s formation in Dublin and introduce another major music spectacle to Netflix’s expanding American football broadcasts.
The NFL and Netflix confirmed Tuesday that U2 will headline the halftime show during the nationally significant Wednesday night matchup, scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. The announcement reunites the band with the NFL for the first time since its memorable Super Bowl XXXVI performance in February 2002. It also gives Netflix another internationally recognizable entertainment act as the streaming platform continues building a year-round relationship with football audiences.
U2 NFL Thanksgiving Eve Halftime Show: Date, Time and Broadcast Details
| Detail | Confirmed Information |
|---|---|
| Event | NFL Thanksgiving Eve Game 2026 |
| Halftime performer | U2 |
| Match | Green Bay Packers at Los Angeles Rams |
| Date | Wednesday, November 25, 2026 |
| Stadium | SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California |
| Kickoff | 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT |
| Netflix coverage begins | 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT |
| Global streaming | Netflix |
| Local Los Angeles broadcast | NBC4 |
| Halftime production | Jesse Collins Entertainment |
| Historical significance | First NFL Thanksgiving Eve game |
The NFL’s official announcement confirms the performance, fixture and broadcast arrangements.
The precise halftime start will depend on the length and progression of the first two quarters. An exact performance time has not been announced.
U2 Return to the NFL Stage 24 Years After Their Historic Super Bowl Performance
The band’s return carries significance beyond another major musical appearance at an American football game.
U2 last performed during the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show in New Orleans on February 3, 2002, when the New England Patriots faced the St. Louis Rams.
That performance took place less than five months after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.
During the show, the names of victims appeared behind the band as the performance developed into a nationally televised tribute.
The set included “Beautiful Day,” “MLK” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.”
It became one of the most frequently remembered halftime performances in Super Bowl history because its emotional message reflected the circumstances facing the country.
The Patriots eventually defeated the Rams 20-17, with Adam Vinatieri kicking the game-winning field goal as time expired.
Nearly a quarter-century later, U2 will perform at another Rams game, although the team now plays in Los Angeles rather than St. Louis.
The connection provides an unusual historical continuity between two very different periods in NFL broadcasting.
In 2002, U2 performed during the league’s championship game on conventional television. In 2026, the band will headline a new regular-season holiday showcase delivered to a global streaming audience.
U2’s 50th Anniversary Gives the Thanksgiving Eve Show Added Significance
U2 formed in Dublin in 1976, making 2026 its 50th anniversary year.
The band became one of the world’s most commercially successful rock groups through recordings, tours and live performances spanning several generations.
Its best-known songs include “With or Without You,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “One,” “Beautiful Day” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
The group has won 22 Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
Its principal members are Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.
The Thanksgiving Eve performance presents an opportunity to celebrate that history before an audience extending beyond established rock fans.
U2’s official announcement confirms that the show is planned as a 50th-anniversary celebration featuring special guests.
However, the band has not publicly confirmed a complete setlist or identified every guest performer.
Individual songs should therefore not be described as confirmed selections for the November show.
Why the NFL Is Creating a Thanksgiving Eve Game
Thanksgiving has been closely associated with professional football for generations.
The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys are especially important to that history, having hosted traditional Thanksgiving games for decades.
The NFL has gradually expanded the holiday’s football schedule, adding an additional Thursday night game and developing special programming around the broadcasts.
The November 25 matchup extends that strategy into the previous evening.
It gives the league a separate national television window before the established Thanksgiving Day schedule.
From a commercial perspective, the Wednesday game creates additional opportunities for advertising, sponsorship and streaming subscriptions.
It also provides a distinct entertainment showcase rather than requiring all holiday-related programming to compete for attention on Thursday itself.
For football fans, the event adds another regular-season game to the holiday calendar.
For the league’s media partners, it creates an opportunity to establish a recurring viewing occasion.
Why Packers vs Rams Is a Meaningful Football Matchup
The game will feature two established NFC franchises with significant national followings.
Green Bay brings one of the league’s most recognizable brands and a long history of postseason competition.
Los Angeles provides a major entertainment market, a modern stadium and an organization that has invested heavily in international visibility.
Unlike an exhibition designed primarily around musical entertainment, the November 25 contest counts toward the regular-season standings.
That means the Packers and Rams will approach the event with competitive objectives determined by their records and playoff positions at the time.
Its precise implications for the NFC standings cannot be determined more than a month before kickoff.
The Rams have already been involved in another historically significant NFL broadcast this season.
In September, they faced San Francisco in the league’s first regular-season game in Australia.
The Sports Encounter’s report on the 49ers’ 27-7 victory in Melbourne documented the football and international significance of that fixture.
The Thanksgiving Eve game now places Los Angeles at the center of another experiment involving scheduling, broadcasting and global reach.
Netflix Is Building a Global NFL Entertainment Strategy
U2’s booking is the latest step in Netflix’s effort to combine NFL broadcasts with major entertainment productions.
The streaming company began showing NFL Christmas games in 2024, using major musical performances to expand the appeal of its holiday coverage.
Beyoncé headlined halftime of the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game in December 2024.
Her performance became widely known as the Beyoncé Bowl.
In 2025, Snoop Dogg led halftime entertainment during the Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings Christmas Day broadcast.
U2 continues that approach in 2026, with an established international rock act performing during a newly created holiday football window.
Netflix’s NFL Entertainment Strategy at a Glance
| Year | Broadcast Event | Headline Entertainment |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Christmas Day, Ravens vs Texans | Beyoncé |
| 2025 | Christmas Day, Lions vs Vikings | Snoop Dogg |
| 2026 | Thanksgiving Eve, Packers vs Rams | U2 |
The objective extends beyond making halftime more entertaining.
Major musical performers can attract viewers who might not otherwise watch an entire football game.
That provides the broadcaster with additional opportunities to introduce the NFL to new audiences.
However, the commercial effect should not be exaggerated.
A high-profile music act does not automatically guarantee stronger subscriptions or long-term football engagement.
Those outcomes depend on viewership, audience retention, service availability and whether occasional viewers return for subsequent games.
What the NFL’s 2026 Netflix Ratings Already Reveal
Netflix’s involvement in American football has expanded beyond traditional holiday programming.
Earlier this season, the platform streamed the first NFL regular-season game staged in Australia.
San Francisco’s victory over the Rams at Melbourne Cricket Ground attracted an average U.S. audience of 18.5 million, according to the audience figures reported after the event.
The broadcast also reached a reported 21.7 million global viewers.
The Sports Encounter examined those figures in its detailed analysis of NFL opening-week television ratings.
The result offered a useful demonstration of how an international sporting event can attract large audiences on a subscription streaming platform.
It did not establish that every future Netflix NFL game would produce similar results.
Kickoff time, team popularity, competition from other broadcasts, the stakes of the game and regional audience interest can all influence viewership.
The Thanksgiving Eve event will provide another opportunity to evaluate that model.
Why Broadcast Comparisons Need Careful Interpretation
Different NFL games are distributed through different television and streaming arrangements.
For example, Baltimore’s October meeting with Dallas in Brazil attracted a reported 24.9 million average U.S. viewers through CBS.
That was higher than the reported U.S. audience for the Melbourne game on Netflix.
But the platforms, kickoff times and measurement environments were different.
The comparison was examined in TSE’s analysis of the Ravens-Cowboys television audience.
For the Thanksgiving Eve event, the most useful indicators will include total audience, average viewing time, geographic reach and the proportion of viewers who watch both the music performance and the football game.
Those figures will only become available after the broadcast.
Why the Rams Keep Appearing in the NFL’s Biggest International Experiments
Los Angeles is developing an increasingly prominent role in the league’s international calendar.
The Rams participated in the historic Melbourne game earlier this season and will now host the first Thanksgiving Eve contest.
These events are different in purpose but share a common commercial feature: they allow the NFL to place recognizable franchises before audiences outside conventional Sunday television windows.
TSE explored the league’s decision to play in Australia in its investigation into the scheduling and commercial logic of the Melbourne opener.
That event presented logistical challenges involving long-distance travel and time-zone adjustment.
The Thanksgiving Eve game requires no comparable international journey for the participating teams, but it introduces a different question about media distribution.
Can a major streaming service establish a new annual holiday sporting event through the combined attraction of football and internationally recognized entertainment?
Los Angeles provides a useful setting for testing that possibility.
The NFL’s International Ambitions Extend Beyond One Halftime Performance
The Thanksgiving Eve event forms part of a broader league strategy to expand its audience beyond the United States.
In 2026, the NFL scheduled a record nine international regular-season games across seven countries and four continents.
The league has also developed international marketing arrangements that allow franchises to build fan communities in overseas territories.
TSE examined these developments in its report on the NFL’s ambitions to reach millions of additional international fans.
U2’s appearance could strengthen the international visibility of the Thanksgiving Eve game because the band has a substantial following in Europe, North America and other regions.
That audience may overlap with existing football followers, but it may also include viewers whose interest is primarily musical.
The business challenge is converting a single high-profile broadcast into continuing engagement with the league.
Media distribution is only one part of that process.
International fan development also depends on accessibility, local promotion, scheduling, merchandise, community participation and sustained coverage.
How Will the NFL Thanksgiving Eve Game Be Broadcast?
Netflix has confirmed that its coverage begins at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, two hours before kickoff.
The game will be available to Netflix subscribers globally, subject to supported markets and applicable service arrangements.
The broadcast will also be carried locally in the competing teams’ television markets, with NBC-owned outlets providing the relevant coverage.
NBC Sports will produce the game broadcast, including pregame and postgame programming.
U2’s halftime production will be handled by Jesse Collins Entertainment.
The official Netflix event guide confirms the game time, subscription requirements and halftime announcement.
Thanksgiving Eve Kickoff Times Around the World
| Location | Local Kickoff |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | November 25, 5:00 p.m. PST |
| New York | November 25, 8:00 p.m. EST |
| London | November 26, 1:00 a.m. GMT |
| Dubai | November 26, 5:00 a.m. GST |
| Karachi | November 26, 6:00 a.m. PKT |
| New Delhi | November 26, 6:30 a.m. IST |
| Tokyo | November 26, 10:00 a.m. JST |
| Sydney | November 26, 12:00 p.m. AEDT |
These are confirmed kickoff-time conversions, not U2’s performance start times. Halftime will begin after the first two quarters conclude.
What Comes After the Thanksgiving Eve Game?
Netflix’s football schedule continues on Christmas Day, December 25.
The platform is scheduled to stream Green Bay against Chicago at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, followed by Buffalo against Denver at 4:30 p.m.
Its regular-season coverage also includes a Week 18 game in January 2027.
Those broadcasts provide additional opportunities to assess how streaming services are changing NFL scheduling and distribution.
For Green Bay, the November 25 game against Los Angeles will be followed by another major holiday appearance.
The Packers’ season has already included important personnel and roster developments, including questions about running back Josh Jacobs’ availability.
TSE covered those issues in its October 16 NFL injury and roster roundup.
The competitive importance of the Thanksgiving Eve game will become clearer as the NFC standings develop through November.
NFL Thanksgiving Eve 2026: Frequently Asked Questions
Who is performing at the NFL Thanksgiving Eve halftime show?
U2 will headline the November 25, 2026, halftime show at SoFi Stadium.
Which teams are playing on Thanksgiving Eve?
The Los Angeles Rams will host the Green Bay Packers.
What time does Packers vs Rams start?
Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern Time and 5 p.m. Pacific Time on November 25.
Where can fans watch U2’s NFL halftime performance?
The performance will be part of Netflix’s live NFL broadcast, with additional local television coverage in the competing teams’ markets.
Has U2 performed at an NFL halftime show before?
Yes. U2 performed at Super Bowl XXXVI in February 2002, during the game between New England and St. Louis.
Why is U2 performing in 2026?
The appearance is part of the band’s 50th-anniversary celebrations and marks its return to the NFL halftime stage after nearly 25 years.
Has U2 announced its Thanksgiving Eve setlist?
No complete performance setlist has been officially confirmed.
Is this the first NFL Thanksgiving Eve game?
Yes. The league has announced the Packers-Rams matchup as its first Thanksgiving Eve game.
U2’s Return Adds Another Dimension to the NFL’s Global Broadcasting Strategy
U2’s Thanksgiving Eve appearance connects the NFL’s past with its expanding broadcasting ambitions.
The band’s previous halftime show remains associated with one of the most emotionally significant periods in modern American history.
Its return comes during a milestone anniversary and alongside a broadcast designed for viewers across multiple continents.
The decision also demonstrates how the NFL and its media partners are using major entertainment performances to support sporting events outside traditional television windows.
For the Packers and Rams, November 25 remains a regular-season contest with consequences for their competitive ambitions.
For Netflix, it is another opportunity to demonstrate the international reach of its live sports programming.
For U2, it is a return to an NFL stage almost a quarter-century after a performance that remains an important part of Super Bowl history.
The football will determine the winner. The halftime show will test how much additional attention one of the world’s best-known bands can bring to the NFL’s newest holiday tradition.