Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Lands NBC No. 1 Telecast During Holiday Week | Charts
The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade proved to be a holiday staple as families and friends across the country gathered around the table. The televised tradition topped the most-watched telecasts in all of broadcast, according to the Samba TV Weekly Wrap Report for the week of Nov. 20 to Nov. 26.
This year marked the 97th year of the signature event hosted by “Today” show anchors Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker. CBS aired its own Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage hosted by Kevin Frazier and Keltie Knight, which was enough to catapult its programming to the No. 3 spot on the broadcast charts.
Though NBC regularly tops linear TV with longstanding mainstay “The Voice,” this week six of the top 10 programs belonged to the broadcast heavyweight. “The Voice” comprised three of the most-watched programs on television, while “The National Dog Show” also airing on the network earned No. 2. ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” took No. 4 as it debuted “A Celebration of Taylor Swift” and the six remaining couples danced to the superstar’s biggest hits during the episode. Showings of “Yellowstone” and “Young Sheldon” garnered No. 5 and No. 7 for CBS, respectively.
Moving to the streaming charts, the Adam Sandler-backed children’s animated musical comedy “Leo” debuted on Netflix and earned the most-watched program this week, with 1.8 million U.S. households viewing the film within the first six days it was available to watch.
Set at a Florida elementary school, the film saw Hispanic households over-index by 14%. “Leo” follows an aging lizard, voiced by Sandler, who plans to live out the last year of his life after escaping from the school. The program is another example of Netflix’s long-standing stronghold on children’s content, which is becoming increasingly important for streamers.
At No. 2, new spinoff reality series “Squid Game: The Challenge,” modeled after the hugely popular South Korean hit “Squid Game,” saw massive viewership in its first few days released on Netflix. The series’ broad, worldwide audience likely helped contribute to its viewership success. Diverse viewers also helped propel the series to 1.1 million household viewers in its first five days, with Black and Hispanic households over-indexing by strong double digits compared to the average U.S. household.
The rest of the charts showed a diverse field of streamers as Peacock, Amazon’s Prime Video, and Apple TV+ joined the leaderboard this week, with “Genie” (No. 7), “Bye Bye Barry” (No. 9), and “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” rounding out the 10th spot. The Apple TV+ sci-fi series created out of the Godzilla universe in 1954 starring Kurt Russell resonated with younger and diverse audiences, as Gen Z households (ages 20-24) over-indexed by 12% during the first three days available to stream. Additionally, Black households over-indexed by 18% during the same time period.
Netflix’s “The Killer” fell from No. 1 last week, down to No. 6 this week. “The Crown” stayed at No. 4. Meanwhile, the steamer’s new holiday movie “Best. Christmas. Ever!” demonstrated staying power, earning another week at No. 3. In fifth this week was “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” on Paramount+, the latest series from prolific creator Taylor Sheridan. Finally, as the latest season draws to a close, “The Great British Baking Show” ranked No. 8 this week.
Cole Strain is VP and Head of R&D at Samba TV, a WrapPRO partner. Click here for more data and analysis from Samba TV.
The Wrap Report provides an exclusive first look at the most watched movies and TV series from the past week across both streaming and linear television sourced from viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households drawn from over 25 million connected TVs, balanced to the U.S. Census.
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