In the matter of Macy v. Macy, we find for Macy

Reader Tom Grelinger writes: "To be perfectly honest, CBS stinks when it came to parade coverage. Yes, both channels went for almost an hour before viewers saw anything from the parade, but CBS's coverage wasn't even in HD (or else KCTV-5 didn't give me the HD feed), and there were things missed that were available on NBC's coverage."

So far as I can tell, CBS insists on calling its "Early Show" extension a "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" instead because people actually want to watch the Macy's parade. (Harry Smith isn't even hosting; those chores were handed off to Maggie Rodriguez and Dave Price.) Maybe they should've called it the "Clay Aiken Thanksgiving Day Parade Drive-By" instead.

Comments

[Royce Ackerman]

It wasn't in HD here in the Dallas/FT Worth area either, our CBS station is CBS owned so I would assume it wasn't in HD anywhere.

[XOC]

Next year Clay should host it.

[DKC]

TV has done for parades what TV has done for the weather forecast; long, drawn-out and boring.

[JoshG]

Part of the reason CBS "missed" some parts was probably Macy's sponsorship of the NBC coverage, which basically means that any live performances or special appearances occur in front of NBC's booth (using NBC microphones), and not CBS's.

Macy's would probably block CBS from covering it if they could, but it's a public event on public streets, and they have as much right to set up a booth and cameras as anyone else.

[Tom Grelinger]

Just to clarify my earlier comments, what CBS missed was not just the performances. I understand that NBC was where they were because of their association with Macy's. What was disappointing about CBS is that they would spend 30 seconds looking at a float and then talk for 3 minutes. There was one point (I was using a DVR to skip all of the talk and commericals, fortunately) where we saw a total of 1 float between commercial breaks, and nothing else from the parade. The rest of the time was spent with commercials. In addition, there were facts about some of the floats and other participants that should have been public knowledge that I was learning watching NBC that I didn't see earlier on CBS. Eventually, I gave up on CBS.