Just in time for Thanksgiving, Roku has started showing live sports scores on its home screen, when the NFL is arguably as much a fixture as the turkey. For anyone hoping to avoid spoilers until they’ve caught up, this is less than ideal.
The feature sits among your Top Picks and Quick Access rows, surfacing the scores it thinks you’ll care about. TV makers have been circling the spoiler problem for a while (Samsung even filed a patent this year for a spoiler remover that blurs search results), but Roku’s approach is here now, and it lands during one of the busiest sports weeks of the year. If you want to hide scores on Roku, YouTube TV, the Apple TV app, or ESPN, start with the settings below.
How to hide sports scores on your Roku home screen
The rollout is gradual, so you may not see them yet
Live scores have been part of Roku’s Sports Zones since last fall’s software update, but they’re now making their way to the main home screen. The tiles are compact, showing the score and game status for the teams Roku thinks matter most in your household. If your loyalties are split between the NFL and a single college conference, those will appear first, which is helpful unless you’re actively avoiding a result. The rollout is gradual, according to CordCuttersNews, so your Roku may not have the feature yet. If it hasn’t, I’d be in no rush to get the update before Thursday.
Roku’s original announcement for Sports Zones included the option to hide scores, and the same setting applies here. If you want to keep the home screen clear, look for that switch.
- Press Home on your Roku remote, then press Left to open the menu, and select Sports.
- Open the Sports options menu.
- Turn off the Live Scores setting, and make sure the Home Screen tiles are turned off too.
How to hide sports scores on YouTube TV
It works team by team, not all at once
YouTube TV’s spoiler setting is genuinely useful, as a single change carries across all your signed-in devices. It works on a team or league basis, though, rather than with one switch for everything. For the NFL, NBA, and MLB, that means you’ll need to hide each team’s score individually, so if you’re saving Bears vs. Lions for later, I’d hide both teams. Google says the setting hides the final score and any live preview until you start watching.
- Open up YouTube TV and search for the team you want to avoid.
- Head to the team’s page and select the More icon.
- Turn on Hide all scores for this team.
When you’ve caught up, go back to the same menu and select Show all sports scores for this team to bring them back.
How to turn off sports scores in the Apple TV app
It only covers the Apple TV app itself
None of the NFL’s Thanksgiving games are on Apple TV, but the app will still show live scores for any sports it tracks, and you can turn them off in a few seconds. Where you’ll find the setting depends on your device.
On an Apple TV 4K
- Open Settings.
- Go to Apps and pick TV.
- Turn off Show Sports Scores.
On a Roku, Fire TV, smart TV, or other streaming device
- Open the Apple TV app.
- Open the sidebar and select Settings.
- Turn off Show Sports Scores.
Apple says this hides live sports scores in the Apple TV app, though it won’t stop them appearing elsewhere on your TV. The app has picked up a few spoiler-aware touches over the years (for example, the new-episode banner that came with an earlier Apple TV app update).
How to hide live scores in the ESPN app
It isn’t available on every device yet
ESPN isn’t showing any of Thursday’s NFL games, though its app does display scores under every live video tile, and those are hard to avoid during a long weekend of college football. The setting is device-specific rather than account-based, so if you have ESPN on both your TV and your phone, you’ll need to turn it off in each place.
- Open the ESPN app and head to Settings.
- Select Video Settings.
- Turn off Live Score Data.
According to ESPN’s help page, this works on Roku, Xbox, Samsung TVs, Comcast X1 and X1 Flex, as well as iOS and Android. Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV are still on the waitlist.
Your phone is still the biggest spoiler risk
And no TV setting can fix that
Even with all TV settings switched off, the most likely spoiler is still a push notification, so if you have the ESPN app or a team app on your phone, mute alerts until you’ve caught up. The rest of the weekend’s games are spread out too (Packers vs. Rams on Netflix on Wednesday night, Broncos vs. Steelers on Prime Video on Friday), so knowing where each one is before you settle in can help.
