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CNN Live Event/Special
History of NFL on Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving in America. Aired 11-11:30a ET
Aired November 27, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Ooh, look at that.
(SINGING)
BERMAN: Live pictures of Philadelphia.
SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Live pictures of Philadelphia.
BERMAN: Where they are enjoying this beautiful Thanksgiving morning, experiencing the Thanksgiving Day Parade there. the actual oldest Thanksgiving Day Parade in America, 106 years and counting there.
SIDNER: Right.
BERMAN: Top of the hour. This has been special coverage of Thanksgiving in America. We've had quite a morning so far.
SIDNER: It's been absolutely picture perfect this year here in New York and across the country really.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. This is Sara Sidner. This is Thanksgiving in America.
SIDNER: Of course, it's not just New York. You just saw Philadelphia there, the parade action still happening in Chicago, in Detroit and in Houston. We're going to take you to all of them live. It's a star- studded our with performances from Brad Paisley, the Four Tops and the Temptations, baby.
BERMAN: And, if you don't know, Thanksgiving is better in Detroit. That's the theme of the Motor City's big Thanksgiving parade this year.
And CNN's Isabel Rosales has been really literally in the middle of it all morning long.
Oh, my God, I have no idea what's happening, but I love it.
SIDNER: Isabel, is that you? Let's get to Detroit right now. Isabel, what's happening?
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wait. I'm talking to you from a mouth. Let's zoom out a little bit. Do you guys know who I am? Can you see? Who do you think I am? Wait. This is a famous Michigan resident. Can you tell? No? I can give it away. This is...
BERMAN: Henry Ford?
ROSALES: Henry Ford, yes.
SIDNER: It is Henry Ford. Good job, John Berman.
ROSALES: The pioneer, automated pioneer and founder of Ford, obviously a big fixture here in Detroit. And you're seeing all of these floats go by. My goodness, they're impressive, many of them over 130 feet long, upwards of 25 feet high.
And if you're wondering why in the world is she wearing that thing on her head, this is a papier-mache head. Detroit -- the parade company that organizes this parade, they actually have the world's largest collection of papier-mache heads. They have over 300 of them.
So they have Henry Ford, which is a new one. This is brand-new this year. And they also have Rosa Parks, Magic Johnson, all sorts of famous Michigan residents. You know who else I caught up with here in Detroit that's not a Detroit resident, but was here as a special guest?
Here's a tip. Here's a tip. Does this look familiar? It's Christopher McDonald, who plays shooter up in "Happy Gilmore." Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER MCDONALD, ACTOR: This is so much fun.
ROSALES: Oh, my God, you got fans. Look at them.
MCDONALD: What an experience. It's been pretty amazing.
ROSALES: How are you liking Detroit?
MCDONALD: Love Detroit. I want to come back. I want to live here. I have been through this place a couple of times in my youth going cross-country and Detroit has exploded. It's fantastic.
This guy, Mr. Gilbert is taking good care of it and it's amazing. And the mayor is amazing.
ROSALES: It's a renaissance story.
MCDONALD: It's a renaissance. It's incredible.
And I'm so excited to have been part of this. It's been a blast.
ROSALES: And, what, did it come out of the blue? They're like, hey, come be our special guest?
MCDONALD: It's a renaissance My friend Mike Gold (ph) said, you want to do it? I said, heck yes. So he's a Detroit guy and it's fantastic. And I left my family. I want to say hi to them back home, my wife and kids. And they're waiting for me to come...
ROSALES: Where's home?
MCDONALD: I live in Los Angeles.
ROSALES: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSALES: Oh, my gosh. And you're looking at the Wizard of Oz float. How impressive. So cool.
Guys, this is not the end of line here in Detroit. I have a few costume changes and I will give you one hint as to what's next.
(CROSSTALK)
SIDNER: Oh, my God. Don't lose your head.
ROSALES: Does that sound like something familiar? You're going to see. Stay tuned for that guys. Woo, woo!
BERMAN: I am going to never sleep again. Like, I swear to God.
SIDNER: Freaky.
BERMAN: That was amazing, amazing, but also terrifying all at the same time.
SIDNER: Yes. Yes.
She's talking out of the neck of...
BERMAN: Henry Ford.
SIDNER: .. Henry Ford's huge papier-mache had.
But I was just wondering. Like, she's going to become a part of that parade.
BERMAN: Yes.
SIDNER: I'm pretty sure that from, now forward, Isabel Rosales is going to be called back as a member of the parade every single year there in Detroit.
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ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: yes.
SIDNER: And you know who else is a member of the parade right here in New York?
HILL: She's officially a member by now this year.
SIDNER: Erica Hill, you have been out there in the streets, right?
BERMAN: I think so.
HILL: Hello, my friend.
(CROSSTALK)
SIDNER: You're down there on 44th Street. What are you seeing?
HILL: I think Isabel is officially in the parade at this point.
SIDNER: Yes.
HILL: We are down here on Sixth Avenue between 44th and 43rd. So we just -- we just saw our good friends, Colbie Caillat and Gavin DeGraw go by. So that was fun.
We are waiting on the big man, on Santa. I know him. We're waiting on that. And we also wanted to check in with our good friend Harry Enten, who is just a little bit north of me, making his way down the parade route as only one Harry Enten can with all the joy that he spreads.
Harry, are you with me? Oh, there he is, our number one Bills fan. Well, you and Wolf Blitzer. You're in a competition with Wolf.
(CROSSTALK)
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I am in a competition with Wolf.
Look, I saw Brad last hour pumping his Philadelphia Eagles. The Buffalo Bills have a pretty gosh darn important game this Sunday against Pittsburgh. I am going to be up in Buffalo in a week's time to watch them take on the Cincinnati Bengals, and I just have to rep my Buffalo Bills.
But I am also -- as I throw the jersey away, I am also repping Thanksgiving Day. And what you're going to see is what I'm trying to turn into a Thanksgiving tradition, and that is turkey-on-turkey crime, turkey cannibalism.
So I have my turkey drumstick right here. I have got my turkey outfit here, and it is time now to take a bite of this turkey drumstick. Let's see how I do, Erica Hill. That is delicious turkey. If I were a turkey, I would be a cannibal.
As I make my way down to you, I'm at 50th and Sixth. I started up at 80 -- 75th and so in Central Park West. There we go, the nice sound of the turkey, and I just feel absolutely fantastic.
HILL: Yes.
ENTEN: Here. Hold on.
HILL: Is that gobble the turkey's cry for help in this moment, Harry?
(CROSSTALK)
ENTEN: Take a bite. Whoa. Look at that bite. Tastes good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, very good.
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: Oh, and we're sharing the turkey leg.
ENTEN: Happy -- we are sharing the turkey leg because I believe in giving back to the community, Erica Hill.
HILL: I think that's great. Wait. John Berman, did you just add some headgear?
SIDNER: Is he sharing a turkey leg with strangers?
BERMAN: I did. I thought we were doing the football thing, but that was before Harry got in trouble with PETA, before, like, breaking every food safety rule in America.
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ENTEN: Whatever, man, whatever.
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: The turkeys were crying out for help with the sound effects.
SIDNER: Right? And he has no absolutely no remorse. He is going to town on that turkey leg with his new friend, who looks like he wants another bite, by the way, Harry.
BERMAN: He's hungry, Harry. He's hungry still behind you.
SIDNER: He's hungry.
BERMAN: I can tell.
ENTEN: No, he's good. He's good. He doesn't want another...
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HILL: I think he might want another...
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SIDNER: He's trying to save his own life.
ENTEN: I'm trying to share. All right.
HILL: Maybe somebody else there needs a bite. I mean, if you're going to share, you might as well share.
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SIDNER: No. While sharing is caring, I do not feel the same with the turkey leg. I'm just saying, I don't know about the safety of all that just went on. Hopefully, everyone will be all right and get to enjoy.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: I will tell you what. We're going to take a little detour here to Brad Paisley. If anyone could save us now -- if anyone could save us, it's Brad Paisley. He has a new Christmas album out called "Snow Globe Town."
Here he is performing "Leave the Christmas Lights on For" me at the Grand Ole Opry as the iconic stage celebrates its 100th anniversary.
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SIDNER: You can catch more songs from Brad Paisley's album this Saturday during Hallmark Channel's "A Grand Ole Opry Christmas."
Have you ever been to the Grand Ole Opry?
BERMAN: I have.
SIDNER: Me too.
BERMAN: I do the Fourth of July in Nashville, right?
SIDNER: Oh, that's right.
BERMAN: Which is where I get this great hat.
SIDNER: Which is where you get the perfect hat. I used to love watching that with Minnie Pearl. She always had a hat on that had a tag on it.
BERMAN: Love it. Love it
SIDNER: So good. Good memories.
BERMAN: All right, Thanksgiving isn't just turkey and pie. It's football, one of the best parts of Thanksgiving, rivalries on full blast.
SIDNER: It's got that hat too.
BERMAN: Lots of trash talking ahead.
Stay with us. This is CNN's special live coverage, Thanksgiving in America.
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CRAIG ROBINSON, ACTOR: Hi. I am Craig Robinson.
SIMU LIU, ACTOR: And I am Simu Liu. And we are the cast of Netflix's new film "In Your Dreams" wishing you guys a happy Thanksgiving.
Now, Craig, what are you thankful for this year?
ROBINSON: I'm thankful for family and friends and my health really and being able to travel and go hang out with my family for the holidays.
How about yourself?
LIU: No, I think I think I'm thankful for the food. I always look forward to our Thanksgiving meal. It's always a big banger, and we're hoping to outdo ourselves this year.
ROBINSON: I play Baloney Tony in the film.
ACTRESS: It can't be my long lost favorite stuffed animal, Baloney Tony.
ROBINSON: My man Smelliot (ph).
But, today, I will be Turkey Tony and plan to be in a turkey coma in just a few hours.
LIU: I might join you.
Now, if you need a fun watch while you recover on the couch from today's Thanksgiving feast, check out "In Your Dreams" on Netflix.
ROBINSON: Get behind me, because I'm going to channel an epic fireball.
LIU AND ROBINSON: Happy Thanksgiving, CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Oh, that was awesome.
SIDNER: That was kind of sweet. I want to be in a tryptophan coma as well. BERMAN: Happy Thanksgiving to those gentlemen as well. So we have got
parades. We have got turkey. And, of course, what would Thanksgiving be without football?
CNN's Andy Scholes Andy Scholes is at Houston's Thanksgiving Day Parade breaking down really how football became a Thanksgiving tradition.
I don't even know the answer to this, Andy. How is it that I spend 10 hours on these Thursdays watching football?
[11:20:03]
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: What?
SIDNER: Something to do with the Lions.
SCHOLES: Yes, I'm about to inform you about it all, but howdy, partners, from Houston, Texas, where it is a beautiful day for a parade here. It's like 65 and sunny.
Look at all the people we have here. I mean, there's more than 100,000 people on the streets of Houston watching the parade. And then, of course, what do you do after this? You go home, you fix a meal, you stuff your face, and then at some point you pass out on your couch and watch football.
I'm really looking forward to doing that later today, watching the Cowboys probably lose to the Chiefs. But did you ever wonder how we started that tradition? Take a look.
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SCHOLES (voice-over): Family, food and football, that's what Thanksgiving is all about.
You ever wonder why the Lions and Cowboys play every Thanksgiving? Well, it all started back in 1934. The Detroit Lions were a brand-new team struggling to fill their stadium, so owner George Richards came up with a brilliant idea, host a game on Thanksgiving Day and broadcast it nationwide on his radio network.
The Lions sold out that first game and the tradition stuck. Fast- forward to 1966. Dallas wanted in. The Cowboys were still building their fan base and general manager Tex Schramm figured, a Thanksgiving game would put the Cowboys on the map. He was right. The ratings soared. And outside of a couple years in the '70s, Dallas has been a Thanksgiving mainstay ever since.
So now, every year, Detroit kicks things off early, Dallas takes the late afternoon spot. And, since 2006, the NFL has added a prime-time game to make it a full day of football feasting from sunup to lights out.
This year's slate has two great divisional matchups, the Lions hosting the Packers in an NFC North division showdown. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens host the Bengals in the nightcap. And Patrick Mahomes will make his Thanksgiving Day debut, as he returns home to Texas to take on the Cowboys.
PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: It's about rebounding fast, trying to be better, even better this next week, going into a big environment, big game and trying to get that win. It's going to be a lot of fun going to Dallas and getting to play on Thanksgiving.
SCHOLES: For my entire childhood, John Madden and Pat Summerall were the voices of Thanksgiving.
JOHN MADDEN, NFL ANNOUNCER: It's fun. We're here. It's football. Turkey, football, you can't beat that.
SCHOLES: Starting in 1981, they began a run of calling Thanksgiving games together for two decades. And, in 1997, they helped introduce the world to their turducken.
MADDEN: What a turducken is, is a deboned duck stuffed in a deboned chicken stuffed in a deboned turkey with stuffing. Now you're talking.
SCHOLES: Even Tom Brady loves him some turducken.
TOM BRADY, FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK: How did a duck and a chicken get roped into this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know..
BRADY: They thought turkey was a Thanksgiving holiday. Oh, that's good.
SCHOLES: Madden introduced the players of the game celebrating with a turkey leg back in 1989, and it's a tradition that is still going today.
From the Lions and Cowboys to the turkey legs and turducken, Thanksgiving football is more than a game. It's a holiday tradition.
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SCHOLES: All right. And, Sara, Berman has already named me the reporter of the Houston parade. So I get to celebrate with a turkey leg right now.
SIDNER: Oh, wait, is that turducken or is that just a turkey leg?
SCHOLES: It's unfortunately only a turkey leg, but it's good. I need to try some turducken. Never had it.
SIDNER: You have never had turducken. How have I had turducken and you haven't had it? You're a Houston guy. What the heck? Well, we're going to let you eat, because that looks awfully good.
SCHOLES: Is turducken a Houston thing? I didn't know that.
BERMAN: Andy, enjoy that for a second, but don't go far. Don't go far, my friend, because I want to bring Brad Smith, who's in Philadelphia, who's got his own game going on there.
Brad, what are you seeing,what are you feeling as you're watching Andy do that?
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BRAD SMITH, CNN HOST: I heard that Andy was enjoying his turkey leg, and I call him. And, once again, I raise him on our own delicacies.
This is the Philly feast Thanksgiving style, of course. I have done a lot of things growing up in Philadelphia area, but I have not eaten a cheesesteak on the parkway just yet. So what better day to do that than now? So we have got a few of the delicacies.
Number one, we have got a pretzel from the Philly Pretzel Factory. You have got to start with that. It's a little hard. We have been outside. So we're going to put that down for a hot second. But then we get to the cheesesteaks.
Now, again, we have been outside for a little bit. And this is a cheesesteak from Ishkabibble's. They're known for their chicken cheesesteaks there, but we got one of the classics here, tried and true, tested. We will test it real quick. There we go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah!
SMITH: There we go. We got a yeah in the crowd. You want a bite?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
SMITH: Brother, I will get you a bite. Brother, don't hold back. See, that's Thanksgiving. That's giving right there. That's giving right there. What do you get? That's good, right? You want some pie too?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that Gino's?
(CROSSTALK)
SMITH: This is -- it's Ishkabibble's right there. You want some pie too? We got a pie from Linvilla Orchards. I grew up going there. My mother -- my flight didn't get in, in time yesterday for me to go pick it up. So my mother picked it up.
[11:25:08]
So, we got a pie from Linvilla Orchards. I'm going to send it back to you all. We're going to enjoy some pie, some dessert. Brother, good to meet you. Happy Thanksgiving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy Thanksgiving.
BERMAN: Brad, tell your mom to send in the bill to CNN. We will get that expenses covered, the gas expenses covered, because she was doing some CNN work there, producing for you to pick up that pie. Well done.
Let's go down to Erica Hill, who's wondering why everyone's sharing their food in the last hour here on this show.
HILL: Yes, I mean, you did read my mind on that. There's a lot of sharing is caring. But, sometimes, I don't know. Yes, there's a lot of sharing of food. I should probably just stop that right there.
I'm also getting kind of oddly hungry watching all of this and very grateful to Brad's mom.
SIDNER: Yes.
HILL: And just to be clear, if there are any issues with accounting, John Berman's the guy and he will push it through, don't worry. It'll not be a problem at all.
So we have the New York City Police Department Band right behind us here, which is awesome. They're doing their thing. We have some other friends though, who've also done a little thing for us, our friends the Four Top with a very special moment for us.
And I'm going to bring that to everybody right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's party time. All right, here's what we're going to do. You all need to get up out of their seats. We're going to take some of you back to your college days, most of you back to your high school days.
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