NFL

CBS lands Thursday night NFL package

Sheldon would be appalled.

The smash hit “Big Bang Theory” will be shoved out of its Thursday night time slot this fall after CBS won the right to broadcast eight NFL games on that night.

It is the first time Thursday night NFL games will regularly appear on a broadcast network.

CBS snapped up the hotly contested eight-game package for between $250 million and $300 million, according to sources close to talks.

Fox, Disney’s ABC and ESPN, NBCUniversal and Turner also bid.

Helping NFL commish Roger Goodell choose CBS was its strong Thursday night lineup.

CBS didn’t say where Sheldon Cooper, a lead character in “BBT,” and the rest of the sitcom lineup that night would end up — back to Monday nights or moved to a November season premiere — but it is clear why CBS and its rivals vied so hard for the pigskin programming: ratings.

And dollars.

While “BBT” attracted $316,912 for a 30-second spot, according to Ad Age, NBC’s Sunday Night Football got 85 percent higher rates, at $593,700, and ESPN’s Monday Night Football charged $325,400.

The Big Bang TheoryMichael Yarish/Warner Bros.

NFL games attract larger TV audiences than any other regular programming. They also deliver the coveted young male demographic.

“I would be surprised if it wasn’t the No. 1 show on Thursday night,” said Sean McManus, head of CBS Sports.

Thursday night NFL games had been available only on the NFL Network.

With those ratings not as robust as Goodell would have liked, the league decided to sell half the weeknight slate to a broadcast network — to increase NFL revenues and hopefully tease more viewers to the NFL Network’s late season slate of games.

To help with the latter point, NFL Network talent will share the CBS screen during pregame, halftime and postgame, it was announced Wednesday.

For each NFL team owner, like the Jets’ Woody Johnson and the Giants’ Tisch and Mara families, the CBS deal will stuff an extra $8 million into their wallets.

Goodell will also bring the NFL back to Saturdays with a doubleheader on the NFL Network Dec. 20.

CBS Sports will produce the games.

One of those Saturday games, like the eight-game CBS sked, will feature CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.

The NFL Network, run by the soon-to-retire Steve Bornstein, spent years cajoling cable operators into putting the service onto their basic packages.

Last year, both Time Warner Cable and Cablevision caved and agreed to give the high-priced network — with little content outside of games — a basic slot on their respective systems.

Also key for CBS, Thursday night is typically when retailers, automakers and movie studios tout their wares — and with such forceful programming, it could help CBS land a bigger slice of the week’ s biggest advertising- revenue pie.

Some TV insiders are wondering if other networks, faced with stiffer competition on Thursday nights through January, might choose to rethink their program launch schedules for that night.