OUR VIEW: This Thanksgiving, show us the parade NBC

In addition to gorging ourselves on a bounteous Thanksgiving meal, hanging out with loved ones and watching football, many of us look forward to watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Or at least, we did until they starting increasing the disappointment in degrees year by year.

    We turn on the TV anticipating colorful floats, military-like marching bands and fabulous Broadway numbers complete with dancing and costumes. But instead we get to see two people we don’t even care about hogging the screen, making corny rehearsed jokes and talking about their Thanksgiving dinner plans.

    What happened to the actual parade being the main event on television? It seems like so long ago that we could watch the parade without superficial interruptions. Now to be fair, we are sure those two hosts work hard. They must get up pretty darn early in the morning to they can beautify themselves, rehearse those jokes and practice flirting on TV without looking trashy. But that does not mean that those of us who want to watch the parade turn it on to look at them for over two hours.

    Showing the actual parade for fifteen minutes of the two hour show is not even logically sound. You would think that it would be cheaper to show more of the parade anyway. If the stars they choose to host are paid by face time on the screen, then it would be less expensive for the station to not show them as much. Or if we had our way, they don’t even have to show them at all.

    We want to make clear we have nothing against the Macy’s parade itself. Macy’s does a wonderful job of putting together balloons for the kids to enjoy, floats with singers, performing shows and a variety of other entertainments for the crowd to enjoy. Our beef is with NBC and the terrible job they are doing at making the audience happy.

    Not all of us have the opportunity to travel to New York and see the parade in person, but if that opportunity ever arises for any of you, we suggest a mass boycott of NBC. We also would encourage a group of parade-goers to storm that little box where the two host sits and yap and give them a piece of our mind – or two, or three.

    Here’s to hoping someone at NBC sees the light and puts together a show worth watching this year.