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The 97th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held on November 23, 2023, in New York City, and shown to viewers live on NBC and Peacock that same day from 8:30 a.m. to noon EST. The broadcast was hosted by Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker. The lineup featured 16 giant helium balloons, 33 heritage and novelty balloons, 26 floats, more than 700 clowns, 12 marching bands, nine performance groups, a host of musical stars, and the one-and-only Santa Claus.
Listed below are the parade elements that appeared in the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They are categorized by unit type, with their respective sponsors in bold. Home locations of talent ensembles are featured in brackets, and guest star’s float appearances are indicated in bold.
Bold denotes a new parade element, an underline indicates a unit that was brought back after an absence, a strikethrough signifies a parade unit that was sidelined before or during the march, and an asterisk (*) indicates an element that was retired after the 2023 Parade.
The NBC broadcast of the 2023 Parade achieved the highest number of viewers in the NBC broadcast's history, attracting 28.5 million viewers (including streams on Peacock)—a 6% increase from the previous year.[7]
Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells of Broadway's Gutenberg! The Musical! appeared as live correspondents along the Parade route on NBC's broadcast.
Guest stars interviewed on the NBC telecast included Jimmy Fallon (The Tonight Show), Olympians Kelly Chang and Sara Hughes with Paralympian Ezra French, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, Abigail Spencer (Extended Family), Lacey Chabert (Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up), and Andy Cohen (Watch What Happens Live). Leslie Odom Jr. was also planned (but failed) to make an appearance.[8]
Reba McEntire (The Voice), Melissa Rauch (Night Court), and Lauren Alaina recorded Thanksgiving messages for the NBC telecast.
Beyoncé provided a special holiday message on the telecast, giving viewers the first look at a trailer for her film Renaissance.
Several additional cameras (including drone cameras) were added along the route, giving viewers of NBC's Parade coverage never-before-seen vantage points.
Macy's hosted a "celebrity viewing area" at its 34th Street grandstands; celebrities who attended included Andy Cohen, Lacey Chabert, and Flavor Flav.
The 2023 Parade was the first to utilize the rebranded promotional campaign produced in collaboration with design studio Mattson Creative.[9]
The NBC broadcast received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Daytime Special.[11]
None of this year's new elements that returned for 2024 (except Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) were given transparent images of the actual deals rather than renders going through the 2024 edition of the Parade's official website for unknown reasons. The Brach's and Camp Snoopy floats would later receive official transparent images for 2025's website.
NBC Credits[]
Executive Producers: Brad Lachman and Bill Bracken
Technical Managers: Barry Sprague, Aaron Sasson, Joe Cocozza
Production Managers: Hatice Soyal and Nick Cohen
Music Manager: Jaynell Grayson
Music Production: Al Theurer
Segment Directors: Brad Lachman and Alex Vietmeier
Associate Directors: Adam Mishler, Marty Pasetta Jr., Bill Bracken, John Coleman, Casey B. Davis, Janine DeVito, Dawn Dicicco, Renee Goldkorn, Susan Kramer, Amy Mancini
Stage Managers: Eddie Valk, Joey Despenzero, Jeff Leib, Kevin Lishawa, Julie Lorusso, Linda Spadaro-Carrizzo, Tom Ucciferri
Production Coordinators: Dabney Rauh, Matthew Fodera, Jonathan Jackson, Amanda LaRae Price
Script Coordinator: Hayley Broderick
Music Coordinator: Scott Siegel
Production Assistants: Doug Gallo, Alex Austin, Matt Balfour, Peter Charney, Antonia Chiarelli, Lauren Chorlton, Abby Damouras, Rachel Koch, Samantha Lemza, Megan Parr, Christian Powell, Leah Pye, Andrew Ramallo, Katie Reif, Matt Schmittdiel, Julia Schemmer, Sara Vandivier, Sam Wilde, Bailey Wilkinson
Lighting Directors: Geoff Amoral and Rick McGuinness
Backtimer: Molly Gray
Staging Lead: Carps & Props: Hillary Byrne
Post Production Supervisor: David Emanuele
Editors: Colin Dow and Noah Rosenstein
Senior Audio: Jorge Silva, Chris Acker, Dave Swanson
Audio: Greg Acker, John Ariz, Jay Carrie, Mel Cubero, Frank Duca, Will Finan, Josh Flower, Ricardo Gomez, Jack Goodman, Andrew Guberman, Holly Murray, Chris Prinzivalli, Andrew Puccio, Jason Ruggles, Christian Schrader, Bob Selitto, Ryan Stotts, Jim Tomlinson, Gianluca Trombetta, Jim Van Bergen, Amanda Wong
Graphic Design: Michael Cole and Mark Perricone
Xpression: Layne Dornstein
Senior Video: Oliver Bosill
Video Record: Alan Buchner
Video: Taylor Dees, Chris Halloran, Ed La Vin
Video Playback: Kevin Hamel, Marc Nathan, Chris Rider
Cameras: William Angelucci, John Atkinson, Dan Balton, Marc Bloomgarden, Ryan Celecia, Dan Erbeck, Robert Feder, Mike Gemelli, Keith Greenwood, Jake Hoover, Ray Hoover, Kat Kallergis, Evans Kotsis, Toré Livia, Martin Marietta, Ben Parsons, Vin Rega, Ron Rigoli, Mike Simon
Chopper Team: Rob Angelos, Kevin Chupka, Tom Zweier
Drone Team: Pablo Barrera, Stas Bilyavskiy, Stuart Bryce, Chris Chepiga, Jose Gonzalez, John Graham, Dexter Kennedy, George Konnaris, Edward Kostakis, Konstantinos Kostakis, Dennis Mancia, Dylan O'Keefe, Tyler Poland, Adam Troeger
Promotional Consideration Furnished by: Parkwood Entertainment, State Farm
Special Thanks to: Mayor's Office of City Wide Events, NYCDOT, NYPD, Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment, Macy's Parade Families & Dedicated Volunteers
Publicity: Christine Olver Nealon, Orlando Veras, Ryan Gannon, Gabriella Boresi
Talent Producers: The Talent LA
Production Managers: Katherine Christakos, John De Leon, Carolyn Dellisanti, Robert DiGiovanni, David Fershadt, Jenna Geniale, Tanner Glaves, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Charles Hoppe, Paul Lopacinski, Mackenzie Schroeder, Nicola Shackman-Ryden, Erin Stief, Evelyn Tam
Studio Production: Gerard Angelella, Justin Briggs, Emily Black, Rudy Botelho, Christian Bracco, Cameron Carnivale, John Cheney, William Cooney, Alyssa Devers, Brian Drew, Simon Fisher, Matt Guarino, Matthew Hoffer, Devon Holland, Josephine Hong, Eric Hudspeth, Alexander Kanderis, Paulo Krasulja, Tina Pfefferkorn, Noelle Rasco, Thomas Schnackenberg, Cory Stallworth, Gregory Thompson, Cory Watson
Production Coordinators: Carolina Arboleda Rueda, Liz Colabraro, Nerissa Diaz, Robin Erichsen, Eric Gelb, Joann Lewis-Slaughter, Darlene Peaco, Kylie Remley, Lauren Rossi, Jordana Terrel, Rose Tibbets, Geneva Wilson, Matthew Taft
Notes and References[]
↑The Bluey balloon was joined by a new, smaller balloon based on the Keepy-Uppy game—aptly—titled "Bluey's Keepy Uppy Balloon."
↑In a novel twist, the Smokey Bear balloon was featured through pre-recorded footage during the Parade's first hour. As such, the balloon was not mentioned when it reached 34th Street. The initial broadcast featured footage of the balloon's 2022 flight, while the repeat broadcast featured footage from Balloonfest 2019.
↑The Tiptoe balloon puppet was instead only present at 34th Street and did not travel down the route, as it had previously caused the lineup to fall behind.
↑One Baby DINO was sidelined before starting the route for reasons currently unknown.
↑Kotb rode on the front of the Tom Turkey float along Central Park West, eventually disembarking at 59th Street.
