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CNN Live Event/Special
137th Rose Parade. Aired 11-11:30a ET
Aired January 01, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
COY WIRE, CNN HOST: Yes, please.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: And we will see some incredible musical performances, including in just moments, pop star Bishop Briggs will get us kicked off.
And, by the way, it has only rained on the rose parade twice now in the last 70 years, including this one. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens with all that rain.
WIRE: Yes, anything could happen. We have people still lining the streets. They're wearing their ponchos, no umbrellas allowed, so as not to obstruct any views. Let's get this show on the road.
I'm here with Elex, the legend, getting ready to soak it all in.
MAGIC JOHNSON, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Happy new year, everybody. We're live from Pasadena, and I'm proud to be the grand marshal for the 2026 Rose Parade presented by Honda.
First, a word from the Tournament of Roses president.
(CHEERING)
MARK LEAVENS, PRESIDENT, PASADENA TOURNAMENT OF ROSES: Thank you, magic. Good morning, and happy new year. I'm Mark Leavens, president of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses.
And it is my honor to welcome you to the 137th Rose Parade. Today, we celebrate the creativity, community, and teamwork that bring us all together. Let the magic begin.
(MUSIC)
[11:05:00]
(MUSIC)
MICHAELSON: Taking us higher to start off the Rose Parade. I love her outfit, by the way. They leaned into the rain and wore rain jackets...
(LAUGHTER)
WIRE: That's very smart. MICHAELSON: ... for their performance.
People may remember her for "Masked Singer" fans, by the way. She was Medusa. She won season nine of "The Masked Singer" as well. So, as they head out of the area, we want to welcome you into our broadcast booth. And a special shout-out to FTD, who made all the flowers in front of us.
WIRE: FTD providing these beautiful flowers. I would like to give one to my co-host.
MICHAELSON: Wow.
WIRE: Thank you, FTD, for making this. Thank you for having me here to celebrate this iconic tradition welcoming in the new year. Happy new year, everyone. We have a great parade, a great show on the way.
MICHAELSON: You're such a romantic. I appreciate that.
WIRE: I'm just happy that our first date is starting so well, Elex.
(LAUGHTER)
MICHAELSON: It really is.
And the parade itself starts off with -- every year with Honda. Honda is the presenting sponsor of all of this. They have been so for more than a decade now. And you look at their float right there, which is going to officially sort of start things off.
The -- Honda has been the official vehicle of the parade for the last 32 years. And they are leaning into the power of teams. The theme this year is the magic of teamwork. And they're trying to showcase that with this float. If you notice, there are multiple different cars on this float, one of them, an F1-style race car, a Honda Prelude, a bobsled, which are all supposed to move around on this track.
I don't know if they're not able to because of the rain.
(LAUGHTER)
WIRE: It's a wet track today.
MICHAELSON: So, they're sort of stationary for the moment. And you see right there also the three different members of this team, a Honda engineer, a race car driver, Team USA athlete, all of them sort of celebrating and setting the stage for 2028 here in Los Angeles, where we will host the Olympic Games once again for the third time.
WIRE: Yes.
MICHAELSON: And Honda is a part of that, one of the founding partners in all of that.
WIRE: And, reminder, this is all created from thousands of hand- placed florals. Next up, we have the Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard, presents
national and service colors at public events, ceremonies, parades like this, participates annually in the Rose Parade, began way back in 1985 doing that, marking it as one of the unit's most momentous recurring events.
And they are leading the way, horses and all, the salutes and all. Up next, we're going to have the United States Marine Corps West Coast Composite Band. They have been out here for multiple hours in the rain holding those horses strong.
MICHAELSON: And they're...
But they're tough because everyone in this band that you're about to see are all trained combat Marines, in addition to being musicians.
[11:10:04]
So if there's anybody who's like, the rain's not going to stop our parade, it's these guys.
WIRE: Here they go.
MICHAELSON: Let's listen in.
(MUSIC)
MICHAELSON: We are listening to the theme song of the Marine Corps as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of America, our birthday, this year. It is great to hear those sounds from them. We salute them. We salute all the veterans that are watching as well.
It's going to be a big year in America. There's going to be celebrations throughout the year marking America's 250th birthday.
WIRE: And it all starts today. Happy new year to everyone.
Reminder that all of these musicians, as Elex said, fully combat- trained Marines, war fighters and professional military musicians. And, as you can see, rain or not, Southern California is always going to bring it.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
WIRE: There's no slowing this parade at all; 5.5 miles, these bands will perform. That's pretty impressive.
And, Elex, if I'm not mistaken, you have some familiarity with band work.
MICHAELSON: Oh, yes.
WIRE: You once played in a band.
MICHAELSON: I was a tenor sax player in my school's band as well, not quite as good as these guys. Let's listen to some more of them. (MUSIC)
MICHAELSON: It's interesting to see the water literally coming off of the drums as they hit it.
So you think about this, this entire parade was started back in 1890. And the premise of the parade was to show the rest of the country how great Southern California's weather is. And so, usually, that's the case, this year a little bit different, but that's not stopping the fun.
And one of the great parts of Southern California, of course, is Disneyland. Disney itself started here in Burbank, and Disney is celebrating America's 250th birthday. Mickey and Minnie are out to lead the way. You see them starting, and Disney bringing a float as well.
Now, Disney made its first appearance in the Rose Parade back in 1938, Coy. You know what was the big movie back then they were promoting?
WIRE: I have no idea.
MICHAELSON: It was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
WIRE: Wow.
MICHAELSON: So that's how long Disney has been a part of this whole thing. And so we have got -- on the float, we have got Goofy and Pluto as well.
It actually looks like maybe we don't have the float, because maybe that's one of the casualties of what happened here. So -- but let's move on to what's happening in San Francisco.
WIRE: Yes, we have the San Francisco Travel Association. Their Believe in San Francisco float won the extraordinary award for most extraordinary float.
Returning to the Rose Parade for the first time in nearly 50 years, the San Francisco Travel Association inviting audiences to believe in San Francisco. And, on this float, you will see some of the bay's iconic landmarks,the hi diverse culture and their enduring spirit of innovation being highlighted here.
This Golden Gate Bridge, they're decorated with California poppies. There are more than 100,000 blooms on this float.
MICHAELSON: I mean, it's -- you think of a lot of the iconic spots. The Pink Ladies is what those houses are called. You see on there the Golden Gate Bridge. You see the cable car.
And then you see the folks. You can see, underneath their ponchos, they are sporting the Niners and the Giants.
WIRE: Hey.
MICHAELSON: They're getting their representation in as well.
WIRE: Speaking of sporting in 2026, this year, the San Francisco Bay Area will become the only region ever to host both a Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl, of course, February 8, just around the corner.
Six of the FIFA World Cup matches in June and July will be right there in the Bay Area.
MICHAELSON: And the Pokemon World Championships as well...
(LAUGHTER)
WIRE: Don't forget that.
MICHAELSON: ... which is pretty incredible.
[11:15:01]
All right, coming up, the grand marshal of the parade. We saw a bit of a preview of him. Magic Johnson will be here.
WIRE: Yes, the legend himself, Magic Johnson.
Don't go anywhere. Look at that. That's like real fur, but, no, it's some sort of natural grass.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:20:04]
WIRE: Welcome back to the 137 Rose Parade presented by Honda.
And we welcome you back with the sweepstakes award winner. California Polytechnic State University's, their Jungle Jumpstart. They won the award for the most beautiful entry, encompassing float design, floor presentation, and entertainment. The most impressive thing, this was built by students.
And they wanted to demonstrate the magic of teamwork through these rain forest animals who are helping to repair an overgrown robot, all working together toward a common goal. Of course, Cal Poly students, they have strengths in engineering, agriculture, and innovation.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
WIRE: And, look, this robot arm there that we can see moving at times, it's moved over 2,000 pounds. The robotics, the cylinders in there are making that thing go.
MICHAELSON: I mean, Cal Poly -- these Cal Poly students from around the state kind of get together on this. They're some of the smartest engineers in the state.
And you can see they really lean into that technology thing. And it's impressive. Their self-built float, they won the top award of all awards over a lot of the professionals who built this stuff, which is pretty cool.
Let's talk about some horses now. We're looking at the Valley Hunt Club. These are the folks that started this thing. Back in 1890, the Valley Hunt Club started this parade, as we mentioned, to highlight the great weather of Southern California. They called it, eventually, America's New Year Celebration, which became the Tournament of Roses.
And that first year, they had footraces, polo matches, a tug-of-war, and they were -- it was horse-drawn carriages, just like this one...
WIRE: Yes.
MICHAELSON: ... with roses. And so this is taking us back to the original.
And in the first few years of the parade, there was actually a lot more rain. But so this is kind of taking us back to the early days of the parade.
WIRE: Look at this beauty coming through, this float, Kaiser Permanente's A Better Idea for Health Care, the largest not-for-profit health system, their 20th appearance at the Rose Parade. This float, they're aiming to highlight how care extends beyond the doctor's office.
So you're going to see animated doctors, nurses, and care teams, of course. There's an MRI machine symbolizing early detection. Now, the faces of the characters on this are created using spice blends. The clothing is made of fine ground rice, oats, onion seeds. I mean, it is just absolutely incredible.
And the trees, they're made from coffee grounds.
MICHAELSON: How about that? And I have never seen wheels quite like this on an ambulance before.
(LAUGHTER)
MICHAELSON: It's interesting what they got going there.
All right, who's ready for some more music? We have got the Delfines Marching Band, who are here from Veracruz, Mexico. It's their fourth appearance in the Rose Parade. It's about 250 members. They lean into Mexican folklore and blend it with contemporary music as well.
You can see some of their outfits are very traditional as well. They -- this band has completed more than 15 international tours, more than 1,500 performances throughout Mexico. So let's listen in and look at their beautiful dancers as well with some traditional garb here.
Delfines Marching Band, take it away.
(MUSIC)
MICHAELSON: They really are, Coy, a combination of modern and historic. I love the blend. We saw some funk from this group from Mexico as well as they march in formation, really, really impressive.
[11:25:02]
WIRE: Very impressive indeed.
And now we have Los Hermanos Banuelos Charro Team. They were founded in 1995 by brothers and friends from Zacatecas, Mexico. Based in San Gabriel Valley, this team, their goal is to emphasize cultural pride, heritage, guided by the Banuelos code.
And that is respect for self, family, teachers, and community, and you can see their horses, right? For all our equestrian lovers out there, these horse breeds, we have the American quarter horse, the Andalusian, the Azteca, and my favorite, the Friesian. I know my mom is loving this part.
Hey, Mom. Love you.
MICHAELSON: And I'm loving the -- the lasso work...
WIRE: Whew.
MICHAELSON: ... was impressive as well.
Now to the Queen Award winner. What is that? That's the most outstanding presentation of roses, which is pretty important in the Rose Parade. And it goes to the city of Santa Fe Springs, which is a city here in Los Angeles County. They call this "A Great Place to Live, Work, and Play!" That's their name.
And if you see on that float, they identify different parts of their history, including a recreation of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe steam locomotive from Heritage Park, symbolizing transportation, economic growth, teamwork. You see members of the community that are there, ponchos and all, waving.
And you don't need some extra water in that fountain there today.
(LAUGHTER)
WIRE: No, it's motoring along just fine through the rain, despite the rain.
Again, as we mentioned, this is just the second time in the last 70 years it rained on this parade. But the colors are still beautiful. The smiles are...
MICHAELSON: It's good for the flowers. The flowers are loving it.
WIRE: They're very...
MICHAELSON: Everybody else may not be, but you can see that locomotive chugging along here on Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena.
WIRE: And the people are loving it. I mean, as you see, people on the float are waving, and we look behind us, and the fans in the stands, they're all waving back, having a great time.
(CROSSTALK)
MICHAELSON: And now...
WIRE: The grand marshal of the 2026 Pasadena Tournament of Roses, Magic Johnson.
MICHAELSON: OK, OK. They put the top up on the car.
WIRE: Oh, come on.
MICHAELSON: Is that a little lame?
WIRE: Come on.
MICHAELSON: And we saw him earlier. He came out here and addressed everybody. I know it's raining, but he was supposed to be out of the car so we could see his hand. This is more like presidential motorcade for Magic.
You see that the -- this is really impressive. Look at the basketballs that they have created as well.
WIRE: Yes.
We have to talk about those flowers. This vehicle was decorated by the official floral partner of the parade. Florists' Transworld Delivery, FTD, they decorated and created the florals for this vehicle. They went with larger than life, right, in true Magic Johnson form, big oversized blooms and high...
(CROSSTALK)
MICHAELSON: And they're Laker colors too, which is cool.
We had purple and gold. Magic, of course, five-time NBA champion, won 11 championships as an owner. Now we're looking at the Animation Award winner...
WIRE: Yes.
MICHAELSON: ... which is really cool. This is the Kindness Is Free float. They're great.
We're going to take a commercial break, though.
WIRE: Yes.
And coming up next, the cast of one of TV's most iconic series. My fellow Trekkies out there, you're not going to want to miss this.
Stay right here on CNN. More Rose Parade coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
