America’s great unifying event: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

It might be the kookiest three and a half hours in all of television.

On Thursday, when the “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” returns to NBC, the broadcast will be fueled by, among others, nearly a dozen marching bands, the Rockettes, Al Roker, Snoopy, Cynthia Erivo, Cole Escola from the Broadway show “Oh, Mary!” and Santa Claus.

And yet, if history is any guide, the parade will draw more viewers than the Oscars, the Yankees-Dodgers World Series or the most popular New Year’s Eve telecast.

Though it has been an annual staple in American living rooms and kitchens since the 1950s, the parade became the most-watched entertainment show in the United States only over the past three years.

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