My view of the 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

[Hawkee]

In my eyes I think this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was the weakest parade in history and when I saw clips of it on Youtube I can understand why. For one thing why did they begin the parade like a Macy's commercial? I found this intro very unappealing and past parades always had a song or a cute intro to start the parade but this intro felt like a Macy's commercial "and I actually thought I was looking at a new Macy's sale commercial before I realized this was the beginning of the parade" Then after Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie introduced the parade and they wasted an entire intro by promoting Alicia Keys's new Broadway play and to me it was a waste of time and something better should've been done. The second clip I found of the parade was of the Sesame Street appearance and they had Lea Salonga sing the classic song Sing and to me they should've done a new Thanksgiving song and have a different singer on there also why did Elmo have a dog because it kept barking throughout the song and i'm wondering if Sesame Street gave Elmo a pet now? The next clips I saw were about the new floats and it seems that the new floats were based on commercials like Pasta Knight which is taken from Rao's Pasta Sauce and the Haribo float which was taken from Haribo Candies and when I saw this I thought "Is this a parade or commercial showcase?" and it surprised me that these new floats were from commercials. It also seemed like this parade was a farewell to Hoda Kotb because other clips of the parade showed celebrities giving Hoda well-wishes with flowers and it just was odd. At least Minnie Mouse's new balloon was cute and we see the return of the Spider-Man balloon for what reason. Is there a new Spider-Man movie or video game coming out? What I can't figure out is why Jennifer Hudson was in the parade in the first place? Does she have a new deal with Macy's or a new album out? I don't know why. But I think ever since the death of Jean McFaddin and the retirements of Robin Hall and Amy Kule the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades have indeed gone downhill and once Hoda Kotb leaves and Craig Melvin becomes the new co-host for next year's 99th parade it will mean a different direction for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades in the future

[DadTheKing]

Hi, Hawkee!I agree the parade has gone downhill. Macy's and NBC care more about DEI than putting on a good parade. That is sad. They think the participants in the parade should fit some imaginary model and could care less if the parade is entertaining. Oh well, maybe someday the old parade will come back. I only watch it now for the Rockettes anyway. And they were not very good either.
DTK

[Hawkee]

Mom and I were discussing this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and in my mom's eyes she thinks they should've made it like the parades of the 90's-2000's. Because what I think Macy's is trying to do is trying to copy other holiday parades such as The Rose Bowl Parade and the parades seen at Disneyland/Walt Disney World and they think this new style of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades is granting NBC big ratings in holiday programming every year. Another thing that I've noticed is that they are adding singers and groups from the 70's and 80's and I cannot understand why Macy's does this to their parade's talent lineup? This year the groups in this parade were War and The Temptations and why were The Temptations in the parade in the first place? Are they making a comeback album or going on tour in 2025? I have no answer why they did this. And the song they sung was My Girl and to me I know My Girl is the famous song of The Temptations but they could've sung another one of their hit songs instead of My Girl like The Way You Do The Things You Do. And another thing that NBC did and I cannot figure why they did this was have a float devoted to Peacock and although the Peacock float was nice with the pretty peacock mascot on the float it seemed like a way to attract Peacock subscribers and by having the host of Peacock's reality show Love Island USA Ariana Madix didn't help much. And the final thing on the parade was that each time The Rockettes perform in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade they recycle the same background music for The Rockettes performances and they should use all new background music. The only things unique about The Rockettes are their dancing and holiday outfits but the music is the same and they should use different background music. In my eyes what really has taken the ratings away from Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades every year that seems to get bigger ratings and a big audience is The National Dog Show and ever since it became a annual Thanksgiving tradition The National Dog Show has taken Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's glory away and has become number one while the parade is at number two in ratings. But for the 2025 parade Macy's better improve it and make it like the old parades next time