Official broadcasts
More than 44 million people typically watch the parade on television on an annual basis; in 2024, it was the most-watched United States television special of the year, outdrawing all of the major awards ceremonies, New Year events and Christmas specials.[56] It was first televised locally in New York City in 1939 as an experimental broadcast on NBC's W2XBS (now WNBC).[57] No television stations broadcast the parade in 1940 or 1941, but local broadcasts resumed when the parade returned in 1945, after the wartime suspension.[58][59] The parade began its network television appearances on CBS in 1948, the year that major, regular television network programming began.[60][61] NBC has been the official broadcaster of the event since 1953. As of 2024, NBC pays Macy's $20 million per year for the license to be the parade's official broadcaster; the parade earns a substantial profit for the network, with ad buys averaging $900,000 per 30-second commercial in 2023, a fee comparable to NBC Sunday Night Football, bringing in a gross revenue of $52 million.[62] In November 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that during negotiations to extend their broadcast contract for the parade and the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks for ten additional years, NBC offered to pay Macy's an increased license fee of $60 million to continue carrying the parade telecast.[63] The renewal was officially announced on February 25, 2025, extending NBC's rights through 2035. The renewal will also include rights to a third Macy's-sponsored special to be held in the future.[64]
At first, the telecasts were only an hour long. The telecast then expanded to two hours in 1961,[65] reduced to 90 minutes in 1962, reverted to two hours in 1965, and expanded to all three hours of the parade in 1969.[66] The event began to be broadcast in color in 1960.[67] NBC airs the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live in the Eastern Time Zone as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as the network uses broadcast feeds from that time zone (which due to time differences starts at 10:00 a.m. AST), but tape delays the telecast elsewhere in the continental U.S. and territories from the Central Time Zone westward to allow the program to air in the same 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. timeslot across its owned-and-operated and affiliated stations (except for Guam, which airs it the day after Thanksgiving at 8:30 a.m. local time, as the territory is located west of the International Date Line and therefore a day ahead from the rest of the United States). However, With the launch of Peacock in 2020 and branded extensions such as a virtual reality broadcast sponsored by Verizon, it is now possible to watch the parade live across the United States without any tape delay through Peacock, or another international streaming provider with rights to NBC's programming.
Following the morning program's expansion to three hours in 2000 (it eventually expanded to four hours in 2007), NBC's Today aired as an abbreviated two-hour broadcast on Thanksgiving morning, pre-empting the last two talk-focused hours of the show for the day to accommodate parade coverage. Starting with the parade's 2023 edition, when coverage was extended a half-hour earlier (to 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time from its longtime 9:00 a.m. start), the Thanksgiving edition of Today was reduced to only 90 minutes (similar to the network's 2017 decision to cut the program's Saturday broadcasts to that same length to accommodate live telecasts of Premier League soccer matches held during the mid-morning to midday hours in the U.S.). Starting with the 2009 edition, NBC has aired a same-day, three-hour afternoon rebroadcast of the parade following the National Dog Show (replacing the annual broadcast of Miracle on 34th Street, which NBC's broadcast television rights to the film expired and not renewed that year).
From 1963 to 1972, NBC's coverage was hosted by Lorne Greene (who was then appearing on NBC's Bonanza) and Betty White. David Hartman and Karen Grassle hosted the parade in 1974, with Ed McMahon serving as a location correspondent (McMahon would later become one of the main hosts from 1977 to 1981). Since 1982, NBC has appointed at least one of the hosts of Today to co-host the television broadcast, starting with Bryant Gumbel, who hosted the parade until 1984. From 1987 to 1997, NBC's coverage was hosted by longtime Today weather anchor Willard Scott. During that period, their co-hosts included Mary Hart, Sandy Duncan, and Today colleagues Deborah Norville and Katie Couric. In recent years, NBC's coverage has been hosted by Today anchors Matt Lauer (from 1998 to 2017), Meredith Vieira (from 2006 to 2010), Ann Curry (2011), Savannah Guthrie (since 2012) and Hoda Kotb (since 2018) as well as Today weather anchor Al Roker (since 1995, with the exception of 2022) who usually joins the producers of the parade or the CEO of Macy's and special guests in the ribbon cutting ceremony. In 2022, Dylan Dreyer filled in for Roker, who at the time was recovering due to recent health complications involving blood clots,[68] while Kotb hosted the ribbon cutting ceremony segment when the parade reached Herald Square, rather than when it usually held on the Upper West Side.
From 1972 until 1993, the television broadcast was produced and directed by Dick Schneider; from 1994 to 2023, it was executive produced by Brad Lachman (who has otherwise been known for producing reality and clip compilation television series) and produced by Bill Bracken (a longtime collaborator of Lachman's, who continued as senior producer after the latter's departure). Silent House Group (a Burbank-production firm founded by Baz Halpin, who executive produced the telecast with fellow company executives Mark Bracco and Linda Gierahn) assumed production responsibilities from Lachman for the 2024 telecast. Gary Halvorson (whose directorial work has centered primarily on sitcoms as well as selected television specials) directed the telecast from 1994 to 2014 (excluding 1995, directed by Arthur Forrest), succeeded by Ron de Moraes from 2015 to 2022 (excluding 2017, directed by Ryan Polito), and Joe DeMaio since 2023. Announcements during the telecast were first provided by Bill McCord, then followed in succession by Bill Wendell, Lynda Lopez (the telecast's only female announcer), and longtime Saturday Night Live and NBC staff announcer Don Pardo; from circa 2000 to 2010, it was announced by Joel Godard (who also served as the announcer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien for much of that period), and then were assumed by Today announcer Les Marshak with the 2011 telecast. Milton DeLugg served as the telecast's music director until 2013.
Although the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade airs on nearly all of NBC's stations, it has often been preempted in the Detroit market due to WDIV-TV's coverage of the locally based America's Thanksgiving Parade, which the station has aired from 1964 to 1984 and (following a nine-year run on ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV) since 1995. While WDIV did carry the later tape-delayed broadcast from 2009 to 2019, local carriage of the live Macy's parade broadcast has been mostly sporadic (it aired locally on WADL from 2009 to 2016), even after the station began over-the-air digital telecasts, granting it the ability to televise the NBC telecast on a subchannel; as such, Peacock exclusively airs the parade live to Detroit-area viewers, who can also turn to nearby NBC affiliates out of Flint (WEYI), Lansing (WILX) and Toledo (WNWO).
This has affected West Michigan, the Traverse City-Cadillac-Sault Ste. Marie and Upper Peninsula markets, where WOOD-TV, WPBN/WTOM and WLUC-TV, respectively, also carry America's Thanksgiving Parade. In all three markets, the parade was only available through CBS until 2023 (see below), although the three NBC stations aired tape-delayed coverage from 2009 until 2019. Since 2024, WXSP-CD has exclusively aired the parade in West Michigan, although in portions of the market where WXSP-CD is unavailable outside of cable or satellite, viewers can also turn to nearby NBC affiliates in Lansing and South Bend (WNDU-TV). In Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula as well as the northernmost portion of West Michigan, the parade is available through Peacock, although some Northern Michigan viewers may turn to WBKB-DT3 in Alpena.
Since 2003, the parade has been broadcast in Spanish on NBC sister network Telemundo; María Celeste Arrarás, anchor of the network's tabloid newsmagazine Al Rojo Vivo, hosted the Spanish simulcast of the parade from 2003 to 2006. Since 2021, the Telemundo simulcast has been hosted primarily by Carlos Adyan (co-host of daytime entertainment/lifestyle talk show En Casa con Telemundo); Adyan was joined by former Miss Universe Andrea Meza as co-host starting with the 2022 edition. The parade won nine Emmy Awards for outstanding achievements in special event coverage since 1979. Since 2020, the parade also provided audio description via a second audio program channel.[69]
From 2016 to 2019, Verizon produced a 360-degree virtual reality live telecast of the parade, with minimal commentary, made available through YouTube.[70] The 2019 edition, produced in cooperation with NBC, had more extensive production, adding hosts Terry Crews, Lilly Singh and Ross Mathews, also adding "virtual balloons" generated through viewers' votes.[71] Verizon's simulcast of the 2020 event ran in a traditional flat, single-perspective format, and was the first to be broadcast internationally, not just in the United States, through Verizon's and Macy's YouTube and Twitter handles. Verizon did not simulcast the 2021 event in either format.
The first live international broadcast of the parade occurred in 2020, when Philippine cable television channel TAP TV became the first foreign-based broadcaster to air the parade's live telecast. Before that, the broadcasts were delayed and aired on Black Friday on what is now RPTV until 2013. In addition, delayed broadcasts are aired to United States military installations overseas through American Forces Network hours following the original U.S. broadcast.
The parade is the most-watched non-sporting entertainment telecast in the United States most years; in 2025, the telecast was one of only five telecasts in the top 50 most-watched overall events of that year that was not a National Football League game. (The four others were two national championships—the College Football Playoff championship and Game 7 of the 2025 World Series—and the inauguration of, and a joint address to Congress by, the President of the United States.)[72]
Current hosts
- Savannah Guthrie (2012–present)
- Hoda Kotb (2018–present)
- Al Roker (1995–2021, 2023–present)
