Al Roker Returning to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade After Health Issues Caused First Absence in 27 Years

Al Roker will be back for this year’s Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! 

The Today host’s absence was felt in 2022 as he underwent a hospitalization, his co-hosts said on Monday.

“By the way, the parade was not the same without Al. We said it’s not the same without you,” Hoda Kotb  said. Roker, 69, joked 2022’s event “was better” without him, but Savannah Guthrie pushed that comment aside. “No, you are the parade,” she said. 

For 27 years, Roker has been a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade staple, but in 2022, Roker was recovering from blood clots in his leg and lungs. "For the past 27 parades, at this moment, Savannah, we would turn to Al Roker, who is our Today show colleague and our best pal," Kotb said during last year’s broadcast. 

"But as a lot of you have heard, Al's recovering — he's recovering very well from a recent medical issue. And we just want to say, we love you Al. Wondering if you're watching, but we wish you a full recovery."

Roker has candidly shared his medical experience since his return to Today in January (and another step away for a knee replacement in the spring).

“It’s no secret that I had a severe medical issue, and to be completely honest, I almost died. I didn’t know it at the time,” he said during an episode of the Your Mama’s Kitchen podcast on Audible. “But I missed Thanksgiving, and almost missed Christmas. And I forgot how important those touchstone moments are.”

The host said his Thanksgiving hospitalization gave him the fight to make it to Christmas as a healthier man. “I felt, in a sense, badly because I ruined Thanksgiving for the family and I was not going to let that happen for Christmas,” he said, later adding, “It was important to me and gave me something to push for. And I made Christmas dinner.”

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The 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, headlined by Cher, takes place on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023. While anyone can head to N.Y.C. to watch the festivities live, the parade is also scheduled to air on NBC and Peacock from 9 a.m. to noon in all time zones.