NEW YORK -- The Week 16 Carolina Panthers-New York Giants game on Sunday, Dec. 21 will be played at 8:15 p.m. EST on NBC and the San Diego Chargers-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game that day will move to 1 p.m. EST on CBS, the NFL announced today. Two other Week 16 game-time changes: the Philadelphia Eagles-Washington Redskins and Atlanta Falcons-Minnesota Vikings games on Sunday, Dec 21 move from 1 p.m. EST to 4:15 p.m. EST on FOX.
The move puts the Falcons in a spot open to a larger television audience.
Following is the final Week 16 NFL schedule (asterisk and bold/italics represents changed game time):
Thursday, Dec. 18 (Week 16)
Indianapolis at Jacksonville 8:15 pm (ET) NFLN
Saturday, December 20
Baltimore at Dallas 7:15 pm (CT) NFLN
Sunday, Dec. 21
Cincinnati at Cleveland 1:00 pm (ET) CBS
New Orleans at Detroit 1:00 pm (ET) FOX
Miami at Kansas City 12:00 pm (CT) CBS
Arizona at New England 1:00 pm (ET) FOX
San Francisco at St. Louis 12:00 pm (CT) FOX
San Diego at Tampa Bay* 1:00 pm (ET) CBS
Pittsburgh at Tennessee 12:00 pm (CT) CBS
Buffalo at Denver 2:05 pm (MT) CBS
Houston at Oakland 1:05 pm (PT) CBS
N.Y. Jets at Seattle 1:05 pm (PT) CBS
Atlanta at Minnesota* 3:15 pm (CT) FOX
Philadelphia at Washington* 4:15 pm (ET) FOX
Carolina at N.Y. Giants* 8:15 pm (ET) NBC
Monday, December 22
Green Bay at Chicago 7:30 pm (CT) ESPN
The flex schedule game-time changes for this Sunday (Dec. 14) are Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos-Carolina Panthers on CBS moving from 1 p.m. ET to 4:15 p.m. ET.
The NFL will utilize “flexible scheduling” on Sundays in Weeks 11-17. Flexible scheduling will ensure quality matchups in all NFL Sunday time slots in those weeks and give teams a chance to play their way onto primetime and into the late-afternoon 4:15 PM ET time slot on CBS and FOX.
For each of the flexible scheduling weeks with the exception of Week 17, the NFL will announce the start times of games on Sundays no later than 12 days prior to that weekend. To ensure a Sunday night game and doubleheader games with playoff implications in Week 17, the flexible scheduling decision for that Sunday may be made on six days notice.
