https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/business/media/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-viewership-appeal.html

Though it has been an annual staple in American living rooms and kitchens since the 1950s, the parade became the most-watched entertainment show ...

Ever since it's launch way back in 1924 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a family tradition and a staple of Thanksgiving and ever since the release of the original Miracle On 34th Street it made the parade even more popular especially since the famous classic ending when Santa Claus makes his arrival signaling that Christmas will be on the way. But every Thanksgiving when Macy's has this iconic parade it's easy to see why it has scored huge ratings every year. Because from the iconic floats to the fantastic balloons there's something about this parade that draws fans to New York every year and NBC is proud of it's success. I think when the Macy's Thanksgiving Day was at it's peak was from 1990-2019 and you can tell when the parades from these two eras were actually great and they used to also have surprises that made history for the parade. "Remember when Phylicia Rashad and Ahmad Rashad who were crushes for awhile proposed to each other during the 1985 parade?" And before Al Roker became the parade's witty and comedic commentator we had the late Willard Scott do fun commentary on the parade. But when the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade debuted as a virtual parade this marked the start of the parade going downhill and have a new image and ever since 2020's parade the parade has never been the same and as I mentioned in many posts on the parade I can easily blame the retirement of Jean McFaddin for this new image of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and once Jean McFaddin died and Manfred Bass also died the parade has lost it's luster today. I cannot figure out why this parade manages to score high audience ratings every year when it's really not worthy of watching anymore? I think what's happened is that Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is no longer considered family-oriented and they want to attract the adult and senior citizen crowd because many of the Broadway acts they have are aimed at the adult audience now and the only thing that mainly attracts children are the balloons and floats and for everyone Santa Claus's iconic arrival at the end of the parade. I think once the 100th parade makes it's debut in 2026 we will see the old style of the parade return once again