I grew up watching this parade. Every Thanksgiving the old folks would be in the kitchen preparing dinner and us kids would be in front of the TV watching the floats and marveling at the monstrous balloons speculating on how they kept them from floating away, rarely noticing the people holding the ropes attached to them. But over the years I have noticed that the broadcast has become less about the parade and more of a commercial for bad programs on NBC and Broadway shows that most of us will never be able to see. It appears that the format for broadcasting the Macy's Parade is 30 seconds showing the parade, 5 minutes of a Broadway show, 5 minutes of interviewing the star of a failing or upcoming NBC show, 5 minutes of the folks in the booth "overlooking Harold Square" and repeat for 3 hours.
Enough with the integrated commercials, go back to basics. Show us the bands; some of those kids worked really hard to raise money to appear in the parade. And the floats; there is a lot of in putting one of those together.
