Thanksgiving Day on Parade

(AP)  Giant balloons, floats, marching bands and clowns with confetti brought smiles to thousands of revelers Thursday eager to catch a glimpse of a parade as steeped in Thanksgiving Day tradition as turkey and pumpkin pie.

Thousands lined the streets of Manhattan for the 83rd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, while crowds gathered nationwide for parades in cities such as Detroit and Philadelphia.

The parade is a tradition of the Thanksgiving holiday that Americans usually celebrate by joining with family for a turkey lunch or dinner.

Katie Stam, Miss America 2009, waved to crowds from a Statue of Liberty float she shared with Meb Keflezighi, the first American in 11 years to win the New York City Marathon.

Shailesh Dighe and his family came to the fabled New York City parade to snap pictures of celebrities including rapper Jay Sean and singer-actress Keke Palmer. Despite the crowds, Dighe said the parade is "totally worth it."

"When you watch it on TV, you don't get that feeling," said Dighe,.

For the first time, the parade route bypassed Broadway, which cuts a diagonal slice through Manhattan, as it made its way south from the Upper West Side to the finish at Macy's flagship store in Herald Square.

The new route traverses the grid of the city's streets and avenues, includes turns around five corners, and is slightly longer than in previous years.

Elsewhere, thousands gathered in Detroit for the 83rd annual America's Thanksgiving Parade. The country's longest-run Thanksgiving Day parade is being held in Philadelphia for its 90th year.

[lbfarm]

Is this a talk show or a parade, I can't keeps the kids watching the TV with five minutes of talk and 20 seconds of parade. It looks like everybody agrees with this and you continue to do the same thing each year. Maybe one of the other stations need to cover it since you don't listen to your viewers

[cher_in_az]

This really was the worst parade coverage ever. I used to live in NYC on the parade route and look forward to watching it on tv now that I live in AZ. The CBS broadcast was boring and not focused on the actual parade.

[atlviewer]

I have been watching the parade on CBS TV since the days of the round robin city coverage in the 1970's (the Bill Conrad years). I have to say that this was the worst mess ever on Thanksgiving Day on CBS in my close to 40 years of viewership. I have never written a complaint of any type, but I felt somebody ought to know to clean up this act in 2010. Mayor Bloomberg's comment about the Kermit ballon was more parade coverage than poor Maggie or Dave were allowed to mention! Thankfully somebody in master control hustled up a shot of old Kermit for all of seven seconds. A disgrace was this so called coverage and not the fault of the anchors. They read and do what the producers give them most of the time. Make changes, please!

[mtlegrand]

As someone who's had the pleasure of seeing this parade in person a number of times over the years, I was EXTREMELY disappointed with the CBS tv "coverage" of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. First, tv viewers barely saw any of the parade on CBS, because for the most part the entire broadcast was filled with mindless, boring, and in many cases rude commentary - I thought the repeated references to Miss Piggy having the swine flu were especially inappropriate. Second, as others have noted, there was nary a marching band to be seen on CBS - and not only do many of us enjoy watching and hearing these bands, but those band members worked extremely hard to get to that parade, and deserve ample network coverage. Finally, the actual camera shots of the parade (what few there were) were lousy - the camera angles were poor, there were practically no close-ups of anything, and it seemed that the people riding the floats were not made aware they were on camera at that moment, and were caught off-guard, instead of playing to the cameras for the tv viewers at home. I will *not* watch this parade on CBS ever again, unless you clean up your act and remember what your tv viewers tuned in to watch - a fabulous PARADE, with balloons, floats, and marching bands. This parade really doesn't need your "help" - just put the cameras on it correctly and let the people - especially the kids - at home enjoy the show.

[lmhessel]

You said everything we've been saying this morning. We tuned in this morning to watch the marching bands. My brother in-law has been working hard and saving all year to make it to this event and thanks to CBS no one will know. This is such a great honor and it's been tarnished by the poor, and very selfish coverage by CBS. The tradition of the Macy's day parade has been turned into selfless self promotion for CBS. And, they interrupt the coverage to show Carrie Underwood, whom I enjoy, but what does she have to do with the parade? She's not even there! Show me what I tuned in for! So frustrating and disappointing. CBS has officially ruined today's parade!

[aChangeOfIdeas]

I changed the channel. Coverage was far better, got to see the marching bands and everything. Maybe CBS will soon realize that people who tune in want to see the actual PARADE, and not watch interviews and stupid morning-talk-show type routines.

[rehoops1011]

What Parade???? I turned it on and the next thing I know a VARIETY SHOW, COOKING SHOW, attempt at Humor, and crap coming from the two who did nothing for the day. What a JOKE cbs

[briscomama]

Not only was the cbs coverage a waste of my time, it is disappointing that I have now missed the parade. I don't watch the parade to see anything but the parade in full. Not chit chat between commentators or guest speakers. I wanted to see the parade in full. When I went to my guide to see what channel the parade was on, NBC didn't have it listed so I taped the CBS one. I caught the last 15 minutes of the NBC one and was able to see High School bands, floats, everything that was in the parade. Don't bother to have coverage on your channel if you are going to do this again next year. Your two commentators were lousy and although I love CBS's Katie Couric, these two clowns are a waste of your money. This is why CBS ranks last.

[onemom4boys]

Oh my god that was the worst parade ever! I loved watching the top half of floats behind the two jabbering idiots they had host the parade...NOT! I actually changed to nbc for the parade coverage to at least get to see some of it. At least their newsreporters were not rude or downright crude. The commercials were ridiculous you couldnt even go 5 minutes without at least two commercials and omg how the two news reporters tried to do product placement was so stupid... BLACKBERRY BLACKBERRY BLACKBERRY!!! WHY NOT JUST GET UP AND SLAM THE BLACKBERRY INTO THE DAM CAMERA LENS AND SCREAM BUY THIS ****!!! I will not watch the macys parade on cbs again!

[babooph]

New route for the parade? Next move may be to Bejing.....

[ayearwasted]

CBS's supposed Macy's Parade coverage is merely celebrity snaps and gab. The token camera shots of the parade are so distant as to appear like an ant farm, and even those token images are blocked by a cheap computer overlay of fall leaves. Clearly CBS has no respect for the thousands of people who created the floats, no respect for those who practiced for years to march and perform, and no respect for we who do appreciate their extraordinary accommplishments. Shame, shame, shame!

[2graycats]

The Macys day parade coverage is extremely disappointing. It would be nice to actually watch the parade, instead of commercials every 10 minutes, interviews with "celebrities" and big balloons!! Doesn't CBS make enough money from other programming to be able to put this on for the viewing public with no interruptions?