After a two-week “test” run on producing Thursday Night Football on NFL Network, NBC will have a stretch of six consecutive games on the Peacock including its annual Thanksgiving contest. NBC enters its first year of airing the TNF package after CBS had its exclusively in 2014 and 2015. It goes into the package after CBS saw a double-digit ratings decline in the first half of the season compared to 2015.

After seeing ratings fall for the first half of the season for all of the packages, the TV partners saw a temporary reprieve on Sunday when both Fox and NBC had games that were compelling and increased ratings from last season.

NBC’s first game under the contract will be New Orleans at Carolina. When the schedule was made, the matchup looked intriguing as the Panthers were coming off a Super Bowl 50 appearance, but as the season has progressed, both teams are under .500 making it a not-so attractive premiere for NBC.

But Sam Flood, executive producer of NBC Sports tells the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir that he thinks the network has a good schedule, but with one caveat:

“But we all know the back half of the season can be a bit of a crapshoot. You’re not sure who’s going to be great and who’s not going to be great. Who would have thought the Dallas Cowboys would be the best team in football right now, by their record? Minnesota started as the best team in the N.F.L. and has lost a few in a row.”

Flood added that the fact that NBC has the second half of the Thursday Night Football schedule means the Peacock will have a run to the playoffs and also an opportunity to reach viewers at a unique time on the calendar:

“Our excitement is to have this run until the end of the season and into holiday shopping, which has a lot of advantages for our ad sales people.”

Can NBC’s slate of games bring viewers to the table where CBS did not? It all depends on the schedule. One game that will most likely be a ratings winner will be Dallas-Minnesota on December 1.

Here’s what NBC will air over the next six Thursdays:

Thursday, November 17 — New Orleans at Carolina

Thursday, November 24 — Pittsburgh at Indianapolis (Thanksgiving-part of Sunday Night Football package)

Thursday, December 1 — Dallas at Minnesota

Thursday, December 8 — Oakland at Kansas City

Thursday, December 15 — Los Angeles at Seattle

Thursday, December 22 — New York Giants at Philadelphia

[New York Times]