Want to avoid your family? Still too early for pigskin (or turkey meat, for that matter)? The 91st Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade can provide a serviceable distraction during the morning hours tomorrow.
But how does one actually watch this thing? Readers, you came to the right place. For starters, those looking for Snoopy and Santa can catch them the traditional way on NBC.
Don’t want to flip all the way to the “Today” show home? Huge fan of Kelsea Ballerini? CBS airs parts of the procession and features the country singer/songwriter.
Prefer the parade en Espanol? Telemundo’s got you covered.
Of course, NBC has the biggest party — and another 360 livestream courtesy of Verizon’s YouTube page. This time around, the NBCU, Verizon and Macy’s streaming partnership will include a traveling camera onboard the lead parade float. Olivia Culpo will return as livestream host; she’ll be joined by BuzzFeed’s Keith Habersberger.
Back on NBC broadcast, 2017 will feature the first picture in picture activation in history. In other words, the fun won’t stop for commercials — it’ll just get significantly smaller.
This year, NBC’s got Gwen Stefani, Patti LaBelle, Harry Connick Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Harvey, Jane Krakowski, Gaten Matarazzo, Chrissy Metz, John O’Hurley, Martha Stewart, and Thalía.
“Today” show anchors Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker return as hosts.
In addition to those guys — and of course, The Rockettes — the 91st march towards Herald Square boasts 17 giant character balloons, 28 legacy balloons, 26 floats, 12 marching bands, six performance groups, and more than 1,000 cheerleaders and dancers. Oh, and sorry, Coulrophobics — there will also be more than 1,000 clowns at this thing.
NBC’s parade coverage kicks off at 9 a.m. in all time zones.
CBS’ starts at the same time for the east coast, but it’s actually live for the central and mountain time zones, too. Even the so-called Tiffany Network’s coverage is tape-delayed for those near the Pacific Ocean, however.
More than 3.5 million people (without stuffing in the oven, hopefully) are expected to line the route leading to 34th Street. So yeah, don’t head to midtown to gobble (, gobble) up brunch on Thursday — instead, be one of the 25 million sensible Americans watching at home.
When the time comes, readers can watch the live stream above.