America’s Great Unifying Event: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
The New York Times
The nostalgia-fueled production has been the most-watched entertainment program in the United States for the past three years, ahead of the Oscars and the World Series.
It might be the kookiest three and a half hours in all of television.
On Thursday, when the “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” returns to NBC, the broadcast will be fueled by, among others, nearly a dozen marching bands, the Rockettes, Al Roker, Snoopy, Cynthia Erivo, Cole Escola from the Broadway show “Oh, Mary!” and Santa Claus.
And yet, if history is any guide, the parade will draw more viewers than the Oscars, the Yankees-Dodgers World Series or the most popular New Year’s Eve telecast.
Though it has been an annual staple in American living rooms and kitchens since the 1950s, the parade became the most-watched entertainment show in the United States only over the past three years.
Other than some sporting events or marquee N.F.L. games — which can draw more than 30 million viewers — maintaining an audience, or even growing it, is a rarity in television these days. Award shows like the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys have had seesawing ratings in recent years that are well short of their heights from a decade or two ago.
The parade, on the other hand, has delivered virtually the same audience since the late 1980s — 20 million viewers each year, give or take. Last year, when viewership from an encore telecast and the Peacock streaming service was tallied up, the parade audience ballooned to over 28 million viewers, a new high.
