Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2025 Draws Mixed Reactions From Viewers

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade viewers were feeling less-than-festive this year.

“Time for the annual torture session that is watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” one person shared via X on Thursday, November 27. “I’m disgusted by [it] every year.”

While Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker brought their A-game for NBC’s broadcast of the 99th annual Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, some fans were not impressed with what actually went down in New York City. Social media was abuzz with critics complaining that the holiday season kickoff did anything except show the parade.

“Please just show the parade,” one X user wrote on Thursday. “I’d rather have more commercials than having to watch celebrities talk. Show the parade! The show is literally called the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, yet we’ve seen less than 2 minutes of it in the past 45 minutes.”

“NBC: ‘Welcome to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,’” they wrote. “*NBC proceeds to show anything but the parade*.”

One social media user had a lot to say about the “tradition” of the parade overall.

“Here’s 5 seconds of what’s happening in the parade, followed by 18 minutes of someone talking about how cool it is to be at the parade and 21 minutes of ads,” they wrote.

As always, the broadcast kicked off with some key Broadway performances. This year, the Buena Vista Social Club cast, Ragtime cast and stars from Just in Time took the 34th street stage.

Some positive feedback came after the Just in Time performance as fans were blown away by Sarah Hyland’s vocal range. She is currently appearing in the musical as Connie Francis. (She was joined on Thursday by costars Jonathan Groff and Sadie Dickerson.)

When it came time for the floats and performances, there were several mixed reviews about the popularity of singers this year.