Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2024: Hoda Kotb’s Farewell, Plus Jimmy Fallon ‘Hangover’ & More

Martin Holmes
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Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb and Jimmy Fallon
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Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

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The 2024 holiday season got underway with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade taking place in a rainy New York City on Thursday (November 28), with an estimated 3.5 million spectators lining the 2.5-mile route to take in the procession of floats, marching bands, giant balloons, and musical performances.

As usual, the Today show’s Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie, and Al Roker hosted the NBC coverage of the parade. This marks a special occasion, as it’s likely Kotb’s last time hosting the parade, as she will be officially retiring from the Today show in January. Kotb has co-hosted the parade alongside Guthrie since 2018.

The parade began at West 77th Street and Central Park West, passed through Columbus Circle before crossing Central Park South to Sixth Avenue and ending at Herald Square, home of Macy’s flagship store.

This year’s parade featured 28 entertainers, 11 marching bands, 28 clown crews, 10 musical performance groups, alongside 17 featured character balloons, 22 floats, and 15 heritage and novelty inflatables.

Celebrities on hand included Jennifer Hudson, Lea Salonga, T-Pain, Rachel Platten, Idina Menzel, Dan + Shay, and The Temptations, all of whom performed. Dancing with the Stars winner and TikToker Charli D’Amelio and ballet stars Tiler Peck and Roman Mejia also featured.

There were also performances from Broadway musicals, including Death Becomes Her, Hell’s Kitchen, and The Outsiders. And, as per tradition, the Radio City Rockettes also performed.

Community actress Alison Brie and The Goldbergs star Matt Bush cut the ribbon to kick off this year’s parade festivities, which began with around 8,000 people marching through Manhattan.

The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon then joined Roker to discuss his new holiday album and celebrate his eleventh Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Fallon turned up in dark sunglasses, which he joked were “to protect him from the sun,” though many viewers thought he was nursing a hangover. The late-night host also performed a track from his upcoming album.

“Jimmy Fallon wearing sunglasses in the rain is the big hangover energy America can relate to today,” wrote one viewer.

Broadway star Idina Menzel appeared as part of Bronx Zoo’s special float to mark the New York zoo’s 125th anniversary, where she performed “Great Escape” from the new Broadway musical Redwood.

Meanwhile, Motown legends The Temptations hopped aboard Wonder Bread’s “Wondership” float to perform their classic hit “My Girl.”

Elsewhere, Wicked star Cynthia Erivo brought the emotion as she gifted Kotb a bouquet of flowers for her final parade. “These flowers are for you because I know that this is the last Thanksgiving parade you’re doing,” the actress said. “I wanted to celebrate that and I wanted to say, we love you. Thank you for all of the hard work you’ve done all of these years.”

Later, Australian pop icon Kylie Minogue took to Herald Square to perform a medley of her hits, including “Padam Padam,” “Slow,” and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”

Of course, the floats and giant character balloons were the main event, which this year included seven new floats: The Addams Family from Netflix’s Wednesday, Rao’s Pasta Knight, Nickelodeon’s Dara’s Fantastical Rainforest, the Bronx Zoo’s wild denizens, Disney Cruise Line’s Magic Meets the Seas, Haribo’s Candy Cosmos, and a Go Bowling figure.

Former favorites also made their return, including Bluey, Beagle Scout Snoopy, Po from Kung Fu Panda, Ronald McDonald, The Pillsbury Doughboy, SpongeBob SquarePants and his pet snail Gary, Stuart the Minion from Despicable Me, and Macy’s North Pole reindeer, Tiptoe.

New balloons included Disney’s Minnie Mouse, Elf on the Shelf with Extraordinary Noorah, Gabby from Gabby’s Dollhouse, Goku from Dragon Ball, Marshall from PAW Patrol, and Spider-Man.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Al Roker

Hoda Kotb

Jimmy Fallon

Savannah Guthrie




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