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CNN Live Event/Special

Minnie Mouse Featured as Biggest Float in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City This Year; Crowds in Philadelphia Celebrating Their Own Thanksgiving Day Parade; Poor Weather Affecting Northeastern U.S. Where Thanksgiving Day Parades Occurring. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired November 28, 2024 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're happy that you both shared that story with us. We appreciate it so much. Happy Thanksgiving, Jamal. Happy Thanksgiving, Wanda. All the best to you. We're rooting for you, Wanda, as you battle cancer, but thank you so much. Please keep us posted. We want to see you next year.

WANDA DENCH, ACCIDENTALLY INVITED STRANGER TO THANKSGIVING DINNER: All right, thank you so much.

JAMAL HINTON, WANDA DENCH'S THANKSGIVING GUEST: Thank you so much.

ACOSTA: All right, thanks to both of you, and thanks to joining this morning on this Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. I'm Jim Acosta. CNN special coverage "Thanksgiving in America" with John Berman and Erica Hill begins right now. Happy Thanksgiving. Eat some turkey. Gobble --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All across the United States, a day to give thanks for family, friends, food, football.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Put that turkey in the oven and gather round for your front row seat to festive, colorful parades coming to you from cities all around the country.

BERMAN: Have an uncle who drives you nuts? This will distract him. A cousin you haven't seen in years? Get her a chair, she will love this. Incredible chefs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of my favorite side dishes.

BERMAN: Entertainers, athletes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

BERMAN: Song, dance, revelry, a musical amuse bouche before the feasting and the napping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy Thanksgiving!

HILL: With appearances from The Temptations, Andy Grammer.

BERMAN: "The Property Brothers" Drew Scott, T.I., Erin French and The Lost Kitchen.

HILL: Kristin Cavallari, Bobby Flay, from "Inside the NBA," Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny Smith.

BERMAN: The cast of "Have I Got News for You," Roy Wood Jr., Amber Ruffin, and Michael Ian Black. And Jennifer Hudson.

HILL: This is a CNN special event, "Thanksgiving in America."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, hello, everyone. I'm John Berman, right alongside Erica Hill, and we are live from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City for the first ever CNN Thanksgiving in America. Not the first Thanksgiving ever in America.

HILL: Important to clarify there, yes.

BERMAN: That's been going on for a while. But the first time CNN has ever done it like this. And by this, I mean wet.

HILL: Yes, a lot of water.

BERMAN: Very wet. Millions of people have braved the rainy weather to line the streets for one of New York's most iconic events, which dates all the way back to 1924.

HILL: And of course, the highlight for so many people every year, those dozens of balloons featuring some of your favorite characters, we'll be watching them as they take to the sky and make their way to the iconic Macy's Department Store on 34th Street. Our cameras captured those balloons as they came to life last night. This is always such a special thing to do here in New York City the night before Thanksgiving. A little fact for you, the first balloon to be featured was Felix the Cat. The longest running character is Americas favorite beagle, Snoopy.

BERMAN: So we have an incredible show planned for you this morning. Wet and incredible.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: The great Martha Stewart is taking some time out of her busy Thanksgiving baking schedule to give us her tips on how to bake a pie that your family will talk about until next Thanksgiving.

And then we will head to Los Angeles and see HGTV home renovation guru Drew Scott. He weighs in on lighting fixtures, but also on the true meaning of giving thanks by giving to those in need this day.

On top of that, we're giving you a front row seat to some of the most amazing Thanksgiving Day parades across the country. If you do not know what a balloonicle is yet, you soon will.

We are live in Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, and Houston.

HILL: We are going to kick things off, though, right here in New York City. Brynn Gingras is just a few blocks away from us. She's at the start of the parade. Happy Thanksgiving, Brynn.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Happy Thanksgiving, Erica and John.

Hey, wait, Erica, can we take a quick walk down memory lane? Do you remember last year when you were coming out to me on the parade route, and it wasn't raining and it was beautiful and it was sunny and --

HILL: Yes.

GINGRAS: Yes.

HILL: I do remember that. You didn't have an umbrella.

GINGRAS: Yes. No, definitely didn't have an umbrella. But you know, it doesn't matter. Everyone here is so excited for this parade, and so are we. We are so excited to join you guys. Who is excited for this parade?

(CHEERING)

GINGRAS: See, I mean, listen, some of these people -- you guys, first of all, some of these people are from Tampa, Florida. What are you doing? I don't know what that's about. But we met someone earlier today, guys, from Salt Lake City. They were out here at 4:30 in the morning with their three children, trying to get the coveted seat along this parade route. And we are so excited for those balloons to fly. It's going to start in about 30 minutes, this parade.

And there, you guys mentioned, a few of those balloons. Well, we got to check them out last night as well at the balloon inflation. And look, we got the biggest balloon, their tallest, rather, is going to be Minnie Mouse that is featured in this parade. And also Spiderman we saw as well. It's going to be exciting, a little windy, but those balloons are going to fly right over our heads. And it's the most, in my opinion, exciting part of this parade. But we'll stay with you, guys.

[08:05:05]

BERMAN: You are among the most exciting parts of the parade, Brynn. And a fun fact about Minnie Mouse. This is Minnie Mouse, her first appearance.

HILL: Which I was shocked by.

BERMAN: Yes, because Mickey, I think appeared, 90 years ago. She's breaking the mouse ceiling, you might say.

HILL: Oh, oh, oh. You've been saving that one all week, right?

BERMAN: We're here four hours, but that's the only one I prepared for this morning. I had that one waiting.

All right, our thanks to Brynn. Let's get to the other end of the parade route. Omar Jimenez is there. What are you seeing now, Omar?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, it's Minnie Mouse's first time. It's also my first time. Equally important, I mean, I think that that goes without saying at this point. We're along the final stretch here so you can see, it's empty right now. But that's going to change in the next few hours. But what's not empty are the folks that are lined up here in the rain.

How are you feeling? We all right? We all right?

CROWD: Yes!

JIMENEZ: I told them this year, they're also cold, wet, and rainy like all of us. But it's all good. It's all good. Everybody is here to have a good time, to give thanks. They are thankful for the opportunity to see it a lot of people that have come here year after year.

And there is so much history when it comes to the Thanksgiving Day Parade. It started back on November 27th, 1924, and at that time it wasn't floats. They had real animals that were coming through from the Central Park Zoo. It was first televised in the 40s. It all really began as a way to boost holiday sales. And then it turned into the spectacle that were seeing now. As you mentioned a little bit earlier, Felix the Cat was the first float. And then obviously we have seen so many come after that.

And look, they're cold, wet and rainy right now. That's not going to change, but the excitement is going to change once we get to the final stretch here, guys.

HILL: It certainly is. Also, Omar, I'd like to wish you a happy belated birthday. Yesterday it was Omar's birthday. So much to be thankful for.

BERMAN: Oh, happy birthday, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Oh, yes. Hey, the parade started on my birthday, 1924, though, a little bit earlier.

HILL: See, so you were meant to be here this year, Omar, meant to be.

BERMAN: All right, there will be 22 balloons in today's parade, depending on how you count, right, because there are some that are legacy balloons, some that are first time balloons. Many are making their debut this morning. As we said, this is the first appearance for Minnie Mouse. I think she's also one of the biggest in this.

HILL: I believe so, yes, which is pretty exciting, because I like that she's dominating. Go Minnie.

BERMAN: Also dominating this parade, our very own Harry Enten. Harry, in some ways you are responsible for Thanksgiving today. How's it going out there?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: I've got to tell you, it's raining, it's pouring. I know there's some old men snoring. But the bottom line is you can't rain on my parade. I got the hand warmer out. I got my Buffalo hat representing my Buffalo Bills. Tom, our cameraman can show you. We've got people who are coming out so far. We're going to get plenty more folks who are coming out. But I will just tell you guys I am so into Thanksgiving, so into parades, so into balloons that a few weeks ago just before Election Day, I went out to the Meadowlands to learn more about the balloons. So let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ENTEN: A hundred years in the making, and finally, Minnie Mouse is going to be in the parade, a big character, a big balloon, and a big first appearance for Minnie Mouse. I say it's about time.

KATHLEEN WRIGHT, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION OPERATIONS MACY'S STUDIO: Minnie is our tallest balloon in the parade, so every year we're looking for ways that we can surprise and delight and bring these big, giant characters to life.

ENTEN: One of the interesting things we were just talking about off camera there is how much helium goes in, really depends on kind of the weather. I don't understand any of this. Maybe if I went back to weather camp I'd get it. But like, how does it exactly work where you sometimes need more helium or less helium?

WRIGHT: So we use a mix of helium and cold air in our balloons to help them fly. So a lot of that is based on the lift in each balloon, which is determined by the size of the balloon, how many chambers are in the balloon. And helium expands in heat. So if it's going to be a warmer day, we might use less helium and more cold air to ensure that the balloon is flying and looking bright on Thanksgiving morning.

ENTEN: So we've got a balloon right in the sky. This is like amazing, right?

WILL CROSS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, MACY'S STUDIOS: This is Gabby from Gabby's Dollhouse. This balloon started production almost eight months ago from initial sketches. Then we go into a 3-D render. We pattern out the entire balloon, we build it in studio, and today is our opportunity to fly it in real world conditions.

ENTEN: We have six new balloons this year. How do you choose which balloons that are actually going to see the light of day?

CROSS: The goal of any Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloon is really about finding those characters that resonate with audiences of all ages.

ENTEN: I'm here with my dear friend Spiderman who thwips his webbing all over the bad guys. We're going to attack crime together. Thwip. You taught me that when I was going like this. There's a particular. What is that again? So you were telling me it's a thwip, right? ADAM STAFFORD, GRAPHIC DESIGNER, MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT Thwip, t-h-w-i-p

is the sound effect, thwip, that Spiderman makes when he slings webs, yes.

ENTEN: Thwip.

So there are some things that you can obviously plan for, but then there are some things that you can't possibly plan for. What is perhaps one of the things that has occurred over the years where it's like, wait a minute, what happened here?

WRIGHT: I think every year there's something that can happen that's unexpected. But I think one of the great things about this team at Macy's studios and the thousands of volunteers that helped make this parade come to life, is that we're really prepared. We do trainings throughout the year. For balloons, of course, weather is our biggest contingency, and so we have different plans for different wind speeds that happen on the parade morning, and we're prepared for anything that can come our way.

ENTEN: Man down, man down. Our dear friends are down on the ground. We're learning that practice, hopefully, will make perfect, because it turns out, inflating a balloon and keeping it up into the air ain't so easy.

CROWD: Four, five, six --

ENTEN: So we cut the ribbon and we start the parade. What is it, one --

CROSS: Three, two, one, let's have a parade.

ENTEN: Three, two, one, let's have a parade.

CROSS: Three, two, one, let's have a parade.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ENTEN: Look, the bottom line is, I don't care if it's raining. I've taken the hat off. It's just going to be a glorious day regardless of the weather, because when there are balloons and they're floats and there's a parade, it's a sunny day. And as my uncle Neil once said in the 1970s, you've got to make your own sunshine. So I'm making my own sunshine, my own sunshine today. Guys?

BERMAN: By the way, he's talking about Neil Sedaka, who really is Harry's uncle. And I do hesitate to say this, but when you're wearing the Bills hat, the one thing I was thinking, you know, he looked like a bills fan. I was like, Harry, don't do this. You know, maybe Harry should have no shirt on. He should be like, you know, have no shirt and out there in his skin with a big like "T" for Thanksgiving painted on your chest.

HILL: Like giving the Naked Cowboy a run for his money.

ENTEN: I will do anything for you, John Berman and Erica Hill. HILL: We know.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: And anything for ratings. That's why we love you, Harry Enten. thank you very much.

HILL: All right, let's head now to Philadelphia. Polo Sandoval, fully dressed, is waiting for us from America's longest running Thanksgiving Day parade. And you are, as I understand it, just a little jump away from the iconic Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I see some balloons in the air there, too, Polo.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, I've been at Macy's for the Thanksgiving Day parade in New York. I've loved every minute of it, but let me tell you, I am definitely feeling the love here in the city of brotherly love. Can I get some cheers from the crowd here in Philly?

(CHEERING)

SANDOVAL: Next to this massive turkey, folks, things are getting ready to get started. I've got some people from Washington. I've got some people from Kansas City. I've got three sisters back there getting ready to pull the turkey, and also an invitation to join you at the Thanksgiving --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most definitely. We have more than enough. You can come on down. We have a 22-pound turkey we're smoking.

SANDOVAL: And 105 years this parade has been running. A little bit of rain is not about to stop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That doesn't stop you at all, absolutely not.

SANDOVAL: What are you most excited about today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just love the parade. The excitement, the balloons. This is the beginning of the holiday season, and you get to spend all this great time with the gobblers.

SANDOVAL: The gobblers, I love it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turkey people.

SANDOVAL: All right, folks, the gobblers, enjoy today. Stay dry. Very quickly, I'll send you off with this pretty incredible image. That's Tweety Bird right here. You can see a lot of brave souls working to strap Tweety down as things get ready to get started. And finally, they're ready for this, even taking down the traffic lights as well temporarily to accommodate these massive floats.

Erica, John, from Philadelphia, let's go back to you.

HILL: That's great. I love that you have a new dinner invitation, Polo. Not surprising. Polo Sandoval, probably one of the loveliest people on the planet.

BERMAN: The gobblers want him over Thanksgiving. I've got some people in Philadelphia today. Just shout out to all of you. I am thankful for all my people down there today.

All right, now to Atlanta where people are burning calories ahead of the big meal. That's a good idea. The largest Thanksgiving half marathon in the country just underway, that is where we find CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. So how's the weather going to impact today's plans?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, so it was a close one, because when we first got here, it was raining, and it rained really -- maybe still about 30 minutes right until the race began. But it is dry now. The weather is perfect for running. The half marathoners have already been going. They're about to start the five-k behind me. Again, not exactly the warmest, but honestly, this is perfect weather here for this race itself.

Now, one thing to note, this isn't the only location, however, that's been looking at rain. If you look at the country, you've got rain showers stretching from Georgia all the way up through Maine. That includes Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and yes, unfortunately, it also includes New York, where the parade is set to begin here shortly.

[08:15:00]

One thing to note the rain is coming in waves, so it's not always going to be heavy. You'll get some light portions, then you'll get some heavier portions, but no snow at least this year for the parade.

That's going to be the only good spot in the parade forecast itself, because it's also going to be a little bit chilly. But we are expecting snow interior portions of the northeast in New England. Some spots could pick up as much as a foot of snow before it's all finally said and done. Guys, back to you.

BERMAN: All right, meteorologist, Allison Chinchar in Atlanta, where it's not raining. I'm waiting for those light rains to come through because so far it's been just the heavy ones of rain.

HILL: Were in a band right now. We've got some of the bands.

BERMAN: All right, much more ahead as we celebrate Thanksgiving in America.

Up next, Chef Bobby Flay will join us to cook up a tasty Thanksgiving dish.

And later, we will go to Atlanta where rapper T.I. is giving thanks by giving back to the community.

We are back in a moment.

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[08:20:59]

PFC. KADE GRAGERT, US ARMY, MIHAIL KOGALNICEANU AIR BASE, ROMANIA: Hi. I'm PFC Kade Gragert currently on a rotation in MKAB Romania supporting Echo Company 3227. I want to wish my friends and family in Sweeny, Texas a Happy Thanksgiving.

HILL: And there it is, Tom the Turkey, Thanksgiving Day in America, continuing here on CNN. Live pictures for you from New York City making their way down to us there. Listening to a Little Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

Tom is what kicks things off for this iconic parade.

BERMAN: I cannot wait to see Tom come by right where we're sitting right now. And if you're watching the parade while preparing your Thanksgiving meal this morning, Food Network celebrity chef, Bobby Flay is in the kitchen with a spin on what side dish you may want to add to your menu.

BOBBY FLAY, AMERICAN CHEF AND FOOD JOURNALIST: Hey everybody, it's Bobby Flay.

Happy Thanksgiving.

This is my favorite day of the year. I like to say that I wake up hungry on Thanksgiving and for good reason, because it's the best food of the year.

So today I'm going to make a side dish of spice crusted carrots and it has a yogurt sauce with some Harissa kind of running through it, some roasted beef and some pomegranate. So, all those good autumn flavors, things that a little spicy, a little tart, a little sweet. It's perfect for your Thanksgiving side dish parade because, I mean, let's face it, turkey is great. I love having a roasted turkey on Thanksgiving. But you know, the side dishes really play the best supportive roles.

So, let's start, let's begin.

We're going to start by putting our carrots in the oven. Now, I have --- these are kind of fancy carrots. We call them heirloom carrots. They come in different colors, there's purple there's sort of like a yellowish off white one, and of course the classic orange. But they're heirloom carrots. So, they, have a really nice inherent sweetness that carrots do just really, really, really good flavor and they come in different sizes and colors and they're very, very beautiful.

So, we're going to start by just putting a little bit of oil on top. You can use olive oil if you'd like or even like a lighter oil. A lot of people including myself, are using things like avocado oil these days, which is a lighter oil. Really good to cook with. It's got a very high smoking point. So, it works out nicely, some salt and pepper and we're going to put these in a 350 degree preheated oven for somewhere between 15 to 18 minutes. Let's say that.

Just because they you know, there's different sizes. So some of them will cook, you know, quicker than others depending on the size. Okay, so as those are roasting, we're going to move on to our beets.

So, we have some roasted beets here. These are golden beets. Now, if you can't find these that's totally fine. You can use the big red beets as well. Just cut them into smaller pieces. But the carrots and the beets work really, really nicely together. But again, were going to bring some extra flavor to those.

So I'm going to add some cumin which is a really beautiful spice. You'll find cumin in lots of Latin cuisines like Cuban or Mexican Spanish cuisine, really, really fantastic. It kind of has like an earthy flavor and a little bit really goes a long way.

Then we want some brightness. We're going to add some fresh parsley to this, some salt and pepper and then we're going to add some pomegranate molasses. This is an ingredient that's become very, very popular as of late, a little tart, a little sweet.

Think about it this way. It's pomegranate juice that's reduced all the way down into a syrup, and we call it pomegranate molasses and we're just going to put a little splash of that in there as well. And then some olive oil and we're just going to mix this together, okay. So salt and pepper, olive oil a little bit of parsley, some cumin and some pomegranate molasses. And then like everything you want to make sure you give it a taste.

The sweetness of the beets themselves, tartness of the pomegranate, really nice balance. Okay, so now we have the carrots roasting. We have the beets ready to go. We're just going to create these little components that we can put them all together at the end.

And now, we're going to make some flavored yogurt, thick Greek yogurt something that I eat every morning for breakfast but also can be used in savory dishes all the time, of course, we're going to add a little bit of parsley and some fresh thyme and then some lemon zest.

[08:25:17]

And the reason why I'm adding the zest is because the zest has tons of flavor and if you put lemon juice in here, it's going to really thin out the yogurt. I want that thick texture to remain, but I want the lemon flavor.

And then, were going to take some Harissa, which is like a -- the best way to describe it is like a North African spicy ketchup. It's got lots of like spices in there and were going to put the Harissa into the yogurt but I'm not going to mix it completely. We want it to give it that sort of marbled like look flavor or color and then were going to take our carrots out of the oven and a little bit of oil in the pan and were going to crust the carrots with a little spice rub.

And then were going to put the spice rub carrots right in the pan and give it that really nice crust. And then when we come back a little while I'm going to show you how to plate this as well as the rest of my Thanksgiving meal. So, see you soon.

BERMAN: Oh man, that looks delicious. HILL: So good.

BERMAN: You can get Bobby's charred carrot recipe and more in his new book, "Bobby Flay: Chapter One" and catch "Beat Bobby Flay Holiday Throwdown" on Food Network, Tuesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern and Bobby will be back later in the show with much more of this mouth-watering full Thanksgiving meal. And one side note just so you know Thanksgiving dish was one of the nicknames I had in high school.

HILL: There's a story there and unfortunately, we probably don't have time for it, but boy am I going to get it in the commercial break. So, were looking forward to more from Bobby in just a minute.

We also wanted to note we're really thankful for our hosts here. This morning, Congregation Sherith Israel. They have welcomed us here this morning. It's the first Jewish congregation actually in all of North America. And they're hosting a special observance of Thanksgiving. It's a multi-faith food drive, bringing together folks from different churches and synagogues, joining together to help their neighbors.

So, a special thank you, not just for being wonderful hosts for us today but for all the work that they are doing here in New York City as well.

BERMAN: It is such wonderful work giving back. So, our coverage continues as we celebrate Thanksgiving in America. We are now just minutes away from the official start of this historic parade in New York.

And later, the comedians of CNN show "Have I Got News For You", see if Roy Wood, Jr., Amber Ruffin, and Ian Black can fill in the blank during a round of Thanksgiving trivia. We're also live in Detroit, where the parade there, that starts in the next hour.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dana Bash and I'm thankful for my family. I love my job. I love working here. I love the privilege of doing what I do for a living. But it's all about family and I love everyone in it. And I feel so grateful to be able to spend time with them during the season.

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