NBC's MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE Sets 13-Year High in Key Demo

NBC's coverage of the MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE has set a 13-year high in adult 18-49 rating in Nielsen's 25 markets with local people meters, with the #1 non-sports rating on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX since the Oscars in February.

In metered-market households, the parade telecast matched its highest rating since 2003 and scored the #2 rating for any non-sports telecast on the broadcast networks so far this season.

At noon, "The NATIONAL DOG SHOW Presented by Purina" walked off with its highest household rating in the meters in 13 years and best-ever 18-49 rating in the LPMs in the 14 years NBC has been tracking the event by that measure.

From 9 a.m.-noon, "The 90th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," hosted by Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker of NBC's "Today," averaged a 13.5 rating, 29 share in households in the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen Media Research and a 7.7/33 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with local people meters.

Those are gains of +7% versus last year in households (13.5 vs. 12.6 on Nov. 26, 2015) and +10% in 18-49 in the LPMs (7.7 vs. 7.0).

In 18-49, this year's 7.7 is the parade's highest since 2003, the first year NBC recorded a demo rating in the local-people-meter markets, when the only market being measured was New York (10.1).

The last time NBC rated higher in metered-market households was 2003 (13.6) and NBC matched this year's 13.5 in 2013.

Excluding sports, the 7.7 in 18-49 in the local people meters is the #1 telecast of the season on those networks and highest going back to last February's "Academy Awards" on ABC (12.7 on Feb. 28).

The 13.5 rating in households is the #2 rating for any non-sports telecast on the broadcast networks so far this season, ahead of all primetime non-sports programming on ABC, CBS, NBC or FOX except the Nov. 13 edition of "60 Minutes" (13.7). The next highest-rated non-sports telecast this season is the Oct. 23 telecast of "60 Minutes" (11.2).

From noon-2 p.m., NBC's coverage of "The NATIONAL DOG SHOW Presented by Purina," hosted by John O'Hurley and featuring the commentary of expert analyst David Frei (6.4/15 in metered-market households, 3.4/13 in 18-49 in the local people meters), romped +13% ahead of last year's 3.0/12 in the LPMs, for the dog show's top marks in households since 2003 (6.5) and highest rating ever for the "National Dog Show" in the 14 years NBC has tracked it in the local people meters.

The 6.4 rating in households is up +10% versus last year's 5.8/13, while the 3.4 in 18-49 in the LPMs is a +13% gain compared with the 3.0/12 for 2015.

National ratings for the parade and dog show, including viewer totals, are due from Nielsen on Wednesday.

NOTE: Results are based on "live plus same day" data from Nielsen Media Research, unless otherwise indicated.

Photos by: Eric Liebowitz/NBC