via press release:
NBC’S COVERAGE OF THE 83RD ANNUAL ‘MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE’ DELIVERS ITS TOP OVERNIGHTS IN THREE YEARS
THE PARADE MARCHES 2 PERCENT AHEAD OF ITS 2008 HOUSEHOLD RATING IN THE 56 MARKETS METERED BY NIELSEN
IN THE NEW YORK MARKET, THE RATING BALLOONS 12 PERCENT VS. LAST YEAR TO ITS HIGHEST IN SIX YEARS
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – November 27, 2009 – NBC’s coverage of Thursday’s 83rd annual “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” has floated 2 percent above the event’s year-ago local-market average, scoring a 12.7 rating, 27 share in households in the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen Media Research. That makes this the top-rated Macy’s parade in the local markets since 2006. The year-ago “overnight” average was a 12.5/26.
According to preliminary estimates from NBC Research, a total of 45.8 million viewers watched all or some of NBC’s 9 a.m.-noon parade coverage, which was hosted by Meredith Vieira, Matt Lauer and Al Roker of NBC’s “Today.” If that estimate holds after official nationals are issued by Nielsen next Friday, it will be the biggest total audience for the parade in eight years.
In the New York market, the parade hovered 12 percent above last year’s average, with a 19.4/40 versus last year’s 17.3/35, making this the top-rated “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” household rating in New York since 2003. Other top markets for the parade Thursday morning were: West Palm Beach, 23.2/42; Providence-New Bedford, 22.3/43; Buffalo, 19.7/38; Knoxville, 18.9/33; Cleveland, 18.8/40; Richmond, 18.6/34; Fort Myers-Naples, 18.4/35; Pittsburgh, 18.0/36; St. Louis, 17.9/36; and Jacksonville, 17.9/34.
From noon-2 p.m., NBC’s coverage of “The National Dog Show Presented by Purina” scored a 4.9/11 in metered-market households, keeping the telecast within 4 percent of last year’s 5.1/12. According to preliminary estimates from NBC Research, a total of 19.2 million viewers watched all or some of the dog show coverage. The top five markets for the Dog Show were West Palm Beach, 10.6/21; Richmond, 9.6/19; Fort Myers-Naples, 9.1/19; Buffalo, 8.6/18; and Providence-New Bedford, 7.8/19.
The annual dog show, hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia, is one of the oldest and most prestigious sporting events in North America. NBC’s coverage was hosted by John O’Hurley and featured the commentary of expert analyst David Frei.
National ratings, viewer averages and demographics, as well as updated total-audience estimates for the parade and dog show are due from Nielsen on Friday, December 4.
Who cares?
I wanted to watch the national dog show. I waited all day and Nashville opt out of showing it. I am glad it done well, but I wish I could have been able to watch it.
We watched it or had it on in the background and all it sounded like was one big infomercial for crappy NBC programming. More parade…less promotion of mediocre shows.
NBC had alot of singing, CBS had alot of talking. Here’s a glitchy video of the full parade from above it in Times Square.
Nicholas, you can watch the dog show online now, without the commentary. Since the 2007 and 2008 shows are still on hulu, it should be there eventually.
I’ll never understand why people want to see a bunch of balloons. get a life people.
There’s also clowns.
Clowns are terrifying, only eclipsed by porcelian dolls and wooden puppets.
What gets me us that NBC has the parade olympics and superbowl every 4 years and their still in the tank
How did the dog show do against the Packers-Lions game?
Well, it seems as though there is no need to worry about NBC’s Parenthood. They just launched the 1st wave of advertising for it during the Thanksgiving parade.
Here’s why we care: this is a lot of people watching TV on a Thursday morning! The HH rating puts it in league with an NCIS.
And did you watch the parade? Every year, the wizards who run that thing successfully figure out how to get thousands of marchers through the route and make Santa arrive on 34th Street, minutes before they go off the air at noon. It’s a minor miracle; we should appreciate it!
I didn’t even watch this yesterday. I was too busy watching some bad NFL games like Stafford and the up and coming Lions, overrated Cowboys, and up and down teams on TNF.
It used to be that you actually got to see a lot of the parade and someone would mention where the marching bands were from. I started at CBS, way too much talk and almost no parade. Then I moved to NBC, too many musical numbers, some balloons. And of course on CBS there was Jamie Kennedy scaring children. I know parades are boring in real life, but, come on, if you are showing a parade, there should be the parade in the show.
I did notice that basically NBC used the parade as a giant commercial for NBC. It’s probably why they refused to let the “Glee” Club sing. How petty.
This animosity towards a parade is pathetic. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade is an American tradition. Generations of americans have watched it and it continues to be passed down to the kids today. Its families waking up early, the kids watching the floats and performances and getting a head start on that turkey. Deal with it.
I slept until noon yesterday, I missed it, no biggie.
i didn’t get to see the dog show for the first time in like 4 years, had to drive to always wonderous pheonix
I’ll never understand why people care if I want to look at balloons. Get a life, indeed.
I used to watch it years ago, until it turned into an NBC commercial time block with bits of parade tucked here and there. It’s actually the reason I gave up on all of the televised parades (Rose Bowl being another, too many commercials, not nearly enough parade). Yes, it is an American tradition… but it’s become far less of one in recent times IMO with all the commercialization that’s infected it. Lots of folks still watch it, though, judging by the ratings, and that’s fine. Gives me hope that someday maybe they will find their way back to being an event that highlights the parade (and the effort that goes into it) instead of a commercial-filled movie.