Balloons, Dogs and Football on the Thanksgiving Menu, Julia’s Homecoming, Searching Lost Cities, TV Marathons

Special

9am/8c

Like kids at Christmas, the network can’t wait to get the parade started, getting a half-hour jump on the usual starting time. Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker return as hosts for the annual parade of giant balloons, marching bands, floats and entertainers, including Cher performing from her first-ever Christmas album. Other headliners include Jon Batiste, Bell Biv deVoe, Brandy, Chicago, En Vogue, David Foster with Katharine McPhee, Ashley Park with Sesame Street Muppets and Pentatonix. Broadway casts of & Juliet, Back to the Future: The Musical, Shucked, How to Dance in Ohio and Spamalot also perform, along with the Radio City Rockettes. Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells from Gutenberg! The Musical! provide commentary from the parade route. (Parade highlights will also be shown on CBS, starting at 9 am/ET, with Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier performing host duties with E! News correspondent Keltie Knight, who gets her Roxie on with Broadway’s Chicago cast.)

Special

12/11c

Once Santa arrives to herald the end of the parade, it’s time to turn focus to the Kennel Club of Philadelphia’s annual celebration of canines in all shapes, sizes and hair lengths. John O’Hurley returns as host, with expert analyst David Frei and sideline reports from Mary Carillo. Beyond the competition, a special honor is bestowed upon the K9 Rom, a German shepherd who was one of several police dogs who helped during the manhunt for escaped inmate Danelo Cavalcante.

Next to Super Bowl Sunday, this is the most famous day of the year for consuming football action along with food. Start on Fox (12:30 pm/ET) with Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions, then it’s CBS’s turn with Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys, and end with a special edition of Sunday Night Football on Thursday, with NBC presenting San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks.

Speaking of food, the delectable dramedy about TV’s French Chef Julia Child (the captivating Sarah Lancashire) finally brings the title character back to Boston to film a second season of the breakout PBS hit. Julia’s happy homecoming is marred by changes at the station, including an opinionated new director (Rachel Bloom) on her show and dissent among male WGBH suits who suddenly feel threatened by the influx of powerful women. But workplace nonsense pales next to her troubling encounter with an acquaintance (CSI’s Paul Guilfoyle), now at the FBI, who has a startling proposition for the former OSS (Office of Strategic Services) employee.

Equipped with drone-scanning and ground-penetrating technology, National Geographic Explorer Albert Lin travels to exotic lands to peel back the shrouds of time and history in hopes of revealing secrets of lost cities in a six-part series. Lin’s first stop: the deserts of Sudan, where he seeks clues to the lost capital city of the Kingdom of Kush, which once ruled the ancient Egyptian empire. This expedition reveals a flooded tomb beneath a 2,500-year-old pyramid and a mountain believed to be the birthplace of the gods.

Friendsgiving Marathon (10 am/9c, TBS): This year’s remembrance of Friends’ classic Thanksgiving shenanigans is clouded with poignance following the death of Matthew Perry (who’ll forever be Chandler in a box). The “Friendsgiving” marathon runs until 3:30 pm/2:30c, when classic Thanksgiving episodes of Modern Family kick in, followed by a “Big Bangsgiving” marathon of The Big Bang Theory repeats starting at 6 pm/5c. Those seeking a musical respite can check in on AXS TV’s 12-hour marathon of The Partridge Family starting at 8 am/ET. A two-day splurge of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (starting at 9 am/ET) in a “Mega Turkey Day Marathon Telethon” doubles as a crowdfunding event on behalf of a potential Season 14. The series, mocking bad movies with comical robots, premiered on Thanksgiving Day 1988. And for nostalgic laughs from yesteryear, Catchy Comedy Network presents 24 hours of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast starting at 6 am/ET. If you miss Michael Landon’s 1984 roast at the start of the marathon, he gets another at noon/ET from 1975.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Catch Me If You Claus (8/7c, Hallmark Channel): The relentless Christmas-movie parade doesn’t even take Turkey Day off. This romcom stars Italia Ricci as an ambitious TV news anchor whose big break on the Christmas morning show is complicated when she discovers a home intruder (Luke Macfarlane) in a red suit claiming to be Chris, Santa’s son.
• Son of a Critch (8/7c, The CW): Young Mark (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) gets more than he bargained for when he researches the Critch family tree.
• Ghosts UK (9/8c, CBS): In back-to-back episodes of the British import, scoutmaster Pat (Jim Howick)’s family visits the estate to mark his “death day,” and a film crew arrives at Button House to film a Regency period drama, because what could go wrong?
• The Ms. Pat Show (streaming on BET+): A special holiday episode finds Ms. Pat (Patricia Williams) looking for husband Terry’s (J. Bernard Calloway) real father as the perfect Christmas gift. Also on BET+: Season 2 of Carl Weber’s The Black Hamptons, and the romantic comedy So Fly Christmas, starring The Neighborhood’s Tichina Arnold as Wyvetta, who renounces love after being stood up at the altar on Christmas Eve. Her best friend (Tami Roman) stands with her, then has to keep her new boyfriend a secret.
• The Flight Attendant Murders (streaming on Sundance Now): A true-crime docuseries examines a serial-killer’s spree targeting young and attractive flight attendants flocking to Braniff International.
• Frasier (streaming on Paramount+): Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) would love nothing more than to add “Professor” to his titles, but first he must convince a provost (Parvesh Cheena) that he’s not a lush. Nephew David (Anders Keith) is no help, freaking out over the “B” grade his uncle gave him.