Thanksgiving TV Trivia
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70 free Thanksgiving TV trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
67 free Thanksgiving TV trivia questions with answers. Thanksgiving is the one day a year when the television schedule is a tradition in itself, and this quiz covers all of it. Questions run from the Macy's parade broadcast (first televised in 1939, on NBC since 1953, and now the most-watched special of the year) and the National Dog Show that follows it, to the record-breaking NFL games and Punkin Chunkin, and then through the sitcom canon: WKRP's turkey drop, the Cheers food fight, Seinfeld's popped balloon, Friends, The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother's Slapsgiving, Bob's Burgers, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Gilmore Girls, The West Wing's turkey pardon and Master of None's Emmy-winning 'Thanksgiving'. Easier questions ask who says 'As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly' or which streamer carries A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving; the hard ones want the year the parade went to color, TV Guide's ranking of 'Turkeys Away' and which ER star directed The West Wing's holiday episode. It works for a family quiz between the parade and the game, or a themed pub-quiz round. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the parade, the dog show, the NFL's Thanksgiving games and the individual episodes, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the Macy's parade first televised, as an experimental local broadcast in New York City?
1939
The parade was first televised in 1939, an experimental local broadcast over W2XBS, NBC's pioneering New York television station.
Q 02Which network carried unlicensed Times Square parade coverage, avoiding the Macy's name?
CBS
CBS shot the parade from Times Square, outside Macy's Herald Square exclusivity zone, and billed it as 'The Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS' without the Macy's name.
Q 03Since what year has NBC been the parade's official broadcaster?
1953
NBC became the parade's official broadcaster in 1953, when its telecast ran only an hour of the three-hour march.
Q 04Which Today weather anchor co-hosted NBC's parade from 1995 to 2024, missing only 2022?
Al Roker
Al Roker co-hosted from 1995 through 2024; his 2022 absence, while recovering from blood clots, left Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb to host without him.
Q 05From 1963 to 1972, NBC's parade coverage was hosted by Betty White alongside which Bonanza star?
Lorne Greene
Bonanza's Lorne Greene co-hosted with Betty White from 1963 to 1972, a decade-long pairing that anchored NBC's coverage.
Q 06Which longtime Today weatherman hosted the NBC parade telecast from 1987 to 1997?
Willard Scott
Willard Scott hosted from 1987 to 1997, paired over that decade with Mary Hart, Sandy Duncan, Deborah Norville and Katie Couric.
Q 07In which year did the parade telecast begin airing in color?
1960
NBC first televised the parade in color in 1960, years before the network's prime-time schedule went almost entirely color in 1965.
Q 08As of 2024, roughly how much did NBC pay Macy's per year for the licence to broadcast the parade?
$20 million
As of 2024 NBC paid about $20 million a year, a bargain set against a telecast whose 30-second spots sold at NFL-level prices.
Q 09A renewal announced in February 2025 extended NBC's parade rights through which year?
2035
The February 2025 renewal keeps the parade and the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks on NBC through 2035, extending a partnership of some seven decades.
Q 10Which Spanish-language network carries a simulcast of the Macy's parade?
Telemundo
Telemundo carries the Spanish-language simulcast with its own hosts, keeping the event inside the same NBCUniversal family as the English telecast.
Q 11For the 1997 parade, MTV aired its own irreverent commentary special starring which animated duo?
Beavis and Butt-head
Beavis and Butt-head starred in MTV's 1997 special Beavis and Butt-head Do Thanksgiving, with Kurt Loder hosting as the pair lampooned the Macy's parade coverage.
Q 12Until 2008, NBC followed its parade coverage with which 1947 film that opens with the parade?
Miracle on 34th Street
Miracle on 34th Street was shot partly at the real 1946 parade; NBC later filled its afternoon slot with a same-day rebroadcast of the parade itself.
Q 13Which streaming service carries the Macy's parade live for viewers outside the Eastern time zone?
Peacock
Q 21Which organisation, a founding member of the AKC, stages the Thanksgiving dog show that NBC televises?
Kennel Club of Philadelphia
The Kennel Club of Philadelphia stages the show, one of the few remaining benched shows, where entered dogs stay on display for spectators all day.
Q 22Roughly how many viewers watched NBC's 2024 Thanksgiving dog show?
12 million
NBC's Jon Miller credits an 'alma mater effect': viewers root for whatever breed they own.
Q 23Which network first televised NFL Thanksgiving games, three years before a rival took over in 1956?
DuMont
DuMont carried the Detroit Lions' Thanksgiving games for three seasons before the network folded in 1956 and a rival took them over.
Peacock, NBCUniversal's streamer, carries the parade live nationwide, while NBC's own broadcast is tape-delayed west of the Eastern time zone to fill the same morning slot.
Q 14Starting with the 2023 edition, NBC's parade coverage was moved to begin at what time Eastern?
8:30 a.m.
Coverage moved to an 8:30 a.m. Eastern start in 2023, squeezing the Thanksgiving edition of Today down to 90 minutes.
Q 15Which balloon hit a lamppost in the 1997 parade, injuring a spectator and prompting size limits?
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat balloon's lamppost strike sent debris that fractured a spectator's skull and left her in a coma for 24 days; the city then capped balloon sizes.
Q 16Which video game character's parade balloon hit a Columbus Circle lamppost in 1993, injuring two people?
Sonic the Hedgehog
The Sonic the Hedgehog balloon struck a Columbus Circle lamppost in 1993, knocking part of the post loose onto the crowd below.
Q 17Why was the parade suspended from 1942 to 1944?
Rubber and helium were needed for the war effort
Rubber and helium were needed for the war effort, so Macy's deflated its balloons and donated the rubber; the three-year gap made the 2026 parade the 100th edition.
Q 18What reward did Macy's offer in 1928 to whoever found the balloons released at the end of the parade?
$100
The bounty fell to $50 the next year, and in 1931 aviator Clarence Chamberlin decapitated a dragon balloon with his wingtip to claim it.
Q 19From 2002, what aired on NBC after the parade, hosted by John O'Hurley and David Frei?
The National Dog Show
The National Dog Show took NBC's noon-to-2 p.m. Thanksgiving slot from 2002, with John O'Hurley hosting and David Frei, a veteran Westminster commentator, as analyst.
Q 20Which 2000 Christopher Guest mockumentary inspired NBC's post-parade Thanksgiving broadcast?
Best in Show
Best in Show, Guest's dog-show comedy, prompted NBC Sports' Jon Miller to propose airing a real dog show after the parade once NBC had lost its 1998 Thanksgiving NFL game.
Q 24Which player received John Madden's first on-air 'Turkey Leg Award' in 1989?
Reggie White
Reggie White of the Eagles received the first turkey leg after the 1989 'Bounty Bowl' win over Dallas; Madden later escalated to six-legged turkeys and the turducken.
Q 25Roughly how many watched the record-setting 2025 Chiefs–Cowboys Thanksgiving game?
57 million
All three 2025 Thanksgiving games set records; the Chiefs–Cowboys audience peaked at 61.4 million and was then the most-watched NFL regular-season game ever.
Q 26Which WKRP in Cincinnati character says 'As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly'?
Arthur Carlson
Arthur Carlson, the hapless station manager played by Gordon Jump, says it after his secret promotion drops live turkeys from a helicopter over a shopping mall.
Q 27Which WKRP reporter gives the Hindenburg-style play-by-play as turkeys crash into the mall?
Les Nessman
Les Nessman, played by Richard Sanders, narrates the off-screen turkey drop with 'Oh, the humanity!', echoing Herbert Morrison's 1937 Hindenburg broadcast.
Q 28WKRP's 'Turkeys Away' was based on Atlanta manager Jerry Blum's real stunt tossing live turkeys from what?
A pickup truck
A pickup truck in a Dallas shopping-center parking lot was Blum's launch platform; writer Bill Dial turned the fiasco into the 1978 episode.
Q 29Where did TV Guide rank 'Turkeys Away' on its 1997 list of the 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time?
Number 40
TV Guide placed 'Turkeys Away' at Number 40 on its 1997 list, honouring the 1978 episode's off-screen turkey drop.
Q 30The 1986 Cheers episode 'Thanksgiving Orphans' is famous for ending in what?
A food fight
A food fight breaks out among the Cheers gang at Carla's house when the turkey stays undercooked and tempers boil over; the episode aired on Thanksgiving Day 1986.