The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a beloved holiday tradition; kind of an unofficial start to the jolliest time of the year. So, once again, viewers across the country can watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade starting at 8:30 am ET/PT (the parade is getting an extra 30 minutes this year) on both broadcast TV and streaming.
US: NBC (live TV streaming services), Peacock
VPN: ExpressVPN
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of the marquee TV events on Thanksgiving (though there are some great Thanksgiving TV alternatives if you're looking to fill your day), with a great lineup of performers, floats and balloons of popular TV and movie characters.
NBC's Today anchors Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker serve as the emcees for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC.
So, if you want to start your holiday off with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, here is everything you need to know to watch it.
How to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV
As it has since 1953, NBC is the official broadcast home of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Starting at 8:30 am no matter where you are in the US, local NBC stations are airing the parade for viewers. This means anyone with a traditional cable/satellite pay-TV subscription or a TV antenna that receives local TV station signals can watch the broadcast. In addition, subscribers to live TV streaming services like Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV also have live NBC coverage as part of their service.
Telemundo is simulcasting a Spanish-language broadcast of the parade as well. Check local listings to see if and where Telemundo is located in your channel lineup, or visit www.telemundo.com.
While NBC is the official broadcast network for the parade, CBS also gets in on the action; they just don't call it the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Officially billed as The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS, the network's coverage is also available on traditional pay-TV services, with TV antennas and on select live TV streaming services, including Fubo, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV.
How to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade online
NBC's coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is also available for Peacock subscribers, as the parade is simulcast on the streaming service. If you prefer CBS's coverage of the parade, Paramount Plus with Showtime subscribers can also watch a live stream of the event on the platform.
How to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from anywhere
If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch the Olympics, you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite sports, shows or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is ExpressVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
Macy’s Thanksgivig Day Parade performers, balloons and floats
Now that we've gone over the how for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, here is all of the fun stuff that viewers are going to see as part of the parade.
The highlight of this year's parade may be that music icon Cher is part of the festivities. But she's not the only big name, here's a full list:
- & Juliet Broadway cast
- Back to the Future: The Musical Broadway cast
- Jon Batiste
- Bell Biv DeVoe
- Big Apple Circus
- Brandy
- Cher
- Chicago
- Cornell Bhangr
- Jessie James Decker
- En Vogue
- ENHYPEN
- David Foster & Katharine McPhee
- Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors
- How to Dance in Ohio Broadway cast
- MVSA Studios
- Ashley Park with the cast of Muppets of Sesame Street
- Pentatonix
- Phantom Limb Company
- Radio City Rockettes
- Paul Russell
- Amanda Shaw & Alex Smith
- Shucked Broadway cast
- Spamalot Broadway cast
- Spirit of America
- The Tap Dancing Christmas Trees
- Tiptoe Winter Guard
- Manuel Turizo
Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, currently starring in Broadway's Gutenberg! The Musical! are serving as special live correspondents. US Olympian Jordan Chiles and US Paralympians Ezra French and Jessica Long are also set to appear, as will Miss America 2023 Grace Stanke.
You can also see all of the marching bands and clown crews that are part of the parade on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade website.
Balloons
There are 25 balloons in total that make up the 97th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Many will be familiar, but the parade also includes seven new balloons this year. Here's the complete set for balloons:
- Acorn
- Beagle Scout Snoopy
- Blue Cat & Chugs
- Bluey
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Goku
- Grogu
- Ice Cream Cone
- Kung Fu Panda's Po
- Leo
- Monkey D. Luffy
- Macy’s Stars
- Paw Patrol
- Pikachu & Eevee
- Pumpkins
- Red Titan from Ryan's World
- Ronald McDonald
- Sinclair's Dino
- Smokey Bear
- Snow Crystal Ornaments
- SpongeBob SquarePants & Gary
- Stuart the Minion
- The Pillsbury Doughboy
- Tiptoe
- Uncle Dan from Migration
Floats
The full lineup of floats for this year's Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is 31, including parade staples like Tom Turkey and Santa's Sleigh. But here is a rundown of the new floats for this year's parade:
- Camp Snoopy
- The Deliciously Delectable World of Wonka
- Good Burger mobile
- Igniting Memories
- Mutant Mayhem
- Palace of Sweets
