Dolly Parton Is Performing at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

From Oprah Magazine

• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will be held on Thursday, November 26, with significant changes for the coronavirus pandemic.

• Notable celebrity guests and performers include Dolly Parton, Keke Palmer, and the cast of Hamilton.

• Here's how to tune in to this year's reimagined Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been a New York institution since 1924. For many, watching the giant floats bounce along a Manhattan avenue is a Thanksgiving tradition, right up there with feasts, festive decorations, and the National Dog Show (another must-see).

There will be a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2020—but it will look different than years prior. Gone are the crowds lined up behind barricades, cheering as the floats bound down the two-and-a-half mile parade route. Instead, to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, this year's event will forgo an in-person audience, and be solely televised.

Here's what you need to know about the Thanksgiving Day Parade—which will still have an impressive array of performers.

No, the parade is not canceled due to the coronavirus.

In fact, the parade has only been cancelled three times in its 96-year history, according to Insider, all due to helium shortages in World War II. Instead, it'll be reimagined under new safety guidelines.

“We still wanted to deliver what people expect on a Thanksgiving morning. But it’s going to look like a parade during COVID times: We’re going to have people in masks and we’re going to be socially distanced," Susan Tercero, the event's executive producer, told The New York Times.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will start at 9 a.m.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade will air from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., in all time zones. That means East Coasters can watch "socially distanced" with your friends in California, and around the country.

Got it. And how can I watch the parade?

The 94th annual parade will be aired on NBC and Telemundo. Following surgery for prostate cancer, TODAY's Al Roker will be back to work in time to co-host alongside Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.

Luckily, you don't need a TV to watch the parade. NBC will simulcast the affair on their website and on the NBC app (iOS and Android). Verizon will live stream the event for the fourth consecutive year, and some on-demand services will also let you stream the parade, like Sling TV, Playstation VUE, AT&T TV Now, and Hulu+ Live TV.

The floats will go down a much shorter route.

The changes to the 2020 parade will be noticeable. Instead of starting the route at 77th Street, the floats will travel down a single New York city block, landing at the Macy's flagship store at 34th Street. Further, the balloons will not be handled by 80-100 people as usual, but will be driven by utility vehicles.

Despite the changes, the show will definitely go on. Old favorites will return, like the Pokemon's Pikachu float, marking its 20th consecutive year in the parade. Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street will be there, too.

The parade is adding brand-new attractions—look out for the Lifetime Network's holiday movie-themed float, “Christmas in Town Square."

The parade's performance line-up is stacked with celebs and Broadway shows.

Sure, the parade will be socially distanced—but it'll still be a party.

Performances from the cast of Hamilton, Jagged Little Pill, and Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations were pre-taped, and will air during the parade broadcast. Given that Broadway shows are not expected to open until 2021 (at the earliest), this may be the the closest thing we'll get to Broadway for some time.

That's just the start of the guest list. According to the New York Times, the guests include Lauren Alaina, Jimmie Allen and Noah Cyrus, Ally Brooke, Sofia Carson, CNCO, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, Karol G, Tori Kelly, Patti LaBelle, Ella Mai, Miss America 2020 Camille Schrier, the cast and Muppets of Sesame Street, Leslie Odom Jr. of Hamilton, Keke Palmer, recent Oprah Conversation guest Dolly Parton, Pentatonix, Bebe Rexha, Jordin Sparks, Sebastián Yatra, and Brett Young.

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