Whether you love it, hate it, or love to hate it, TV expert Bob Thompson has an idea of what will likely be on your TV screen this week: "The one-two punch of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade starting at 9 a.m., and the National Dog Show presented by Purina following at noon," he told Boston Public Radio on Monday.
The numbers just don't lie.
"In 2018, the last time we were talking about this, 23.7 million people watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," Thompson said. "[It was the] second in entertainment shows ... only to the Oscars, and the post-Super Bowl broadcast of 'This Is Us,' that entire year. The third highest rated entertainment show of the year. To give a little more perspective, 24 million people watched Macy's last year, the average audience for the impeachment hearings we just went through were 12 million."
Why do so many people flock to the broadcast every year?
According to Thompson, it's "tradition."
Thompson is founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public communications at Syracuse.
