I cannot figure how on earth Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade manages to score huge ratings every year? And this is a mystery I have never solved every year. I think what really has helped the parade every year is NBC wanting to hype the parade every week before Thanksgiving and by the time the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade finally airs people are so so tired of hearing about it and it is treated like the Super Bowl or The Grammys. I also think why the parade started getting huge ratings for NBC was when they began airing it at 8AM two years ago and when this happened I no longer began watching the parade and had NBC not messed with the timeslot and left it at 9AM I think it would be better. I think secretly that NBC wants to make Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades be a Peacock exclusive because I think NBC rather shows interest in airing NFL Football instead of the parade in the future. Because I think NBC sees NFL Football on Thanksgiving as a boost for monster ratings than a parade. But as I have mentioned many times Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has turned itself into a parade promoting commercials because if you watch the parade today every single float and balloon is a commercial mascot or based on a commercial. I mean what are we doing watching a holiday tradition or researching commercials? But I think Macy's will make NBC make the parade a Peacock exclusive as a way to gain more Peacock subscribers

What I think is responsible for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's downfall was the deaths of Jean McFaddin and Manfred Bass and when those two events happened you could tell that those signs meant the parade was gonna go downhill in the future but what mainly caused the parade to go downhill was the pandemic starting with the 2020 parade and ever since then Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades have been gone downhill ever since and it still gets huge ratings every year. What I think NBC is trying to do is to make the parade appeal to an adult audience and image rather than the family image and audience the parade is supposed to attract by having adult oriented Broadway plays featured in the parade. And the only things on the parade that attract young children are the character balloons and Santa Claus and the appearences of children's show characters like Sesame Street and Barney

Yes its rubbish and ppl think its s0 good!!

http://web.archive.org/web/20070219183201/http://www.myfilestash.com/userfiles/thedude/confused.gif

I think Macy's needs to give the Thanksgiving Day Parade a new image to attract this current generation as well as future generations because what I think happened is that ever since Robin Hall retired and Amy Kule took over then retired Macy's Thanksgiving Parades were beginning to go downhill and they began having a less family oriented image. The second thing I noticed is that the parade has begun having celebrities play Mrs. Claus to go along with Santa and I remember when there were no celebrities playing Mrs. Claus and Mrs. Claus was played by a wonderful actress but whatever became of this Mrs. Claus is a mystery and even though that change occurred the parade still gets big ratings

I think Macy's is trying every trick in their book to improve their Thanksgiving Day Parade every year but every year to me the parade gets worse. Like take for instance why do they have a choir group known as the Macy's Singing Tree perform Christmas carols and original holiday songs and to me I think this is a way for Macy's to promote their own artists to launch a record label like Starbucks has done with Hear Music and people think the parade gets ratings from performances like this one? I remember when they used to have the ensemble America Sings start off the parade and they would sing fun songs but once America Sings disappeared the parade preshow got replaced by Broadway acts. Speaking of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's Broadway acts even they went downhill and this became another way to score TV ratings for the parade. And they have Broadway musical performances that are unappealing like Monty Python's Spamalot Death Becomes Her Sideshow and Once On This Island and these plays people see? I mean they had Broadway musical performances like Cats Annie and A Chorus Line and now this is the new image of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade today? How this holiday event still is surviving in ratings is a giant mystery to me

I love it. I watch every year out of tradition and nostalgia. Maybe it's not as good as in the past, but I still very much enjoy it.

Not one clue on how a giant holiday parade full of colorful floats, marching bands, music, giant balloons of popular characters, and ending with Santa has remained popular for 100 years?
Okay then.

I think the main reason why people continue to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade every Thanksgiving is because of the various celebrities that they have and the various singers and they think that by having popular celebrities and singers perform in the parade gives it high ratings. I used to watch this parade as a family tradition every Thanksgiving but since the 2020 parade and the time change it went downhill for me. But to me they should not have parade intros like Macy's commercials and have the Today hosts just introduce the parade and telling you interesting facts about the parade before the actual parade begins because I feel that the Broadway musicals have always been a waste of space on the parade and the only pre-parade act they should have is The Rockettes and that would get the parade more huge ratings

I can expect the ratings for this year's parade to be weak because I think Macy's is trying to gain a new audience to the parade and they want an older audience and the current generation of today. I also noticed that they have added rap artists to their lineup and what does rap have in common with a family oriented parade? But I think people mainly watch it for the Broadway performances which I think is a waste of time and I never have figured out why Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades are so obsessed with Broadway shows? If they did have a limit of two or three Broadway musicals it would work but not a whole hour of Broadway musicals before the actual parade arrives. I mainly blame the death of Jean McFaddin and the retirement of Robin Hall because when Robin Hall was the executive producer of the parade and Jean McFaddin was alive the parade was great. But when Will Coss stepped in as the current producer he has made the parade go downhill and it has gotten weaker since and gets low ratings. If Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades should return to their old formula they would score giant ratings and be good again

I thought the parade was good this year. I think it's good every year. I love how they keep it pretty much traditional, but update it to keep up with the times. Still a good, sweet, wholesome program.

The most ridiculous comment in this thread is calling it "rubbish." An entertaining event that takes a lot of time and effort to produce is dismissed by one word?

Parade gets more and more popular :thumbsup:


Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Hits All-Time Viewership Record For NBC & Peacock (https://deadline.com/2025/11/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2025-viewership-record-1236630899/)

The most ridiculous comment in this thread is calling it "rubbish."

Not a Macy’s balloon, but should be

328404

Not a Macy’s balloon, but should be

328404

Now THAT is a great float for a Rubbish parade !! :lol::D:lol::D:lol::D

The most ridiculous comment in this thread is calling it "rubbish." An entertaining event that takes a lot of time and effort to produce is dismissed by one word?

I dunno Stevie. I heard it was aweful this year..........

I didnt see it but thats what I heard.......

I did not like the Macy's parade. I missed the Rockettes and a lot of the Broadway show stuff was too LBQ and not kid appropriate. I did see an old fashioned parade in El Paso Texas that was pretty cool.
DTK

Ya thats what I heard....