1) Thanksgiving Day parade (shown here in a previous year), 8:30 a.m. to noon Thursday, NBC and Peacock. The holiday season begins. There are 22 floats, 11 bands,17 balloons and 10 performance groups. NBC adds Rockettes, more dancers, soloists (Jennifer Hudson, Billy Porter, Kylie Minogue) and the Broadway casts of “Hell’s Kitchen,” “The Outsiders” and “Death Becomes Her.”
2) Post-parade, Thursday. NBC follows with a dog show at noon and a parade rerun at 2. At night, there are family films at 8 – “Mary Poppins” (1964) on ABC and “Shrek” (2001) on CW. Then again, some viewers will stick to pro-football. That’s 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS (Bears-Lions), 4:30 p.m. on Fox (Giants-Cowboys) and 8:15 on NBC (Dolphins-Packers).
3) “Holiday Spectacular,” 8-10 p.m. Sunday, ABC. Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribiero host and sing two Christmas songs. There are songs from Disney’s “Moana 2” (opening Nov. 27) and “Mufasa” (Dec. 20). Other music, from Disney parks and resorts: Elton John, Carly Pearce, John Legend, Pentatonix, Leslie-Odom Jr., Ava Max and more.
4) “Murder in a Small Town,” 8 p.m. Tuesday, Fox. Here’s an odd mix: The regular characters are deep, damaged and quietly caring. Now they have a serial-killer case (which started last week) that has moments of absurd excess. It’s still a good hour, flaws and all. So is “Brilliant Minds” (10 p.m. Monday, NBC), with a painter who can no longer see colors.
5) “Dancing With the Stars” finale, 8-10 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. No one was ousted last week, so five “stars” remain. Olympians Ilona Maher (rugby) and Stephen Nedoroscik (gymnastics) join football’s DannyAmendola, actress Chandler Kinney and Joey Graziadei of “The Bachelor.” Last week’s scores carry over, with a new free-style dance to add in.
6) “Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving,” 9-11 p.m. Wednesday, NBC. On the eve of the holiday, here’s a collection of past sketches. Other Wednesday shows also point to the next day. At 8 p.m., NBC has a preview of the parade. From 9-11 p.m., ABC’s “20/20” has a look at the making of “Mary Poppins,” which recently had its 60th anniversary.
7) “Henry Mancini: 100,” 9 p.m. Friday, PBS. Here’s the wondrous range of Mancini’s music, from frisky (“Pink Panther,” “Peter Gunn”) to warm, including two versions of “Moon River” and “Days of Wine and Roses.” Alongside way too much bland talk, there are great vocals — Michael Buble, Cynthia Erivo, Monica Mancini – and instrumentals.
8) “Reindeer in Here,” 8-9 p.m. Saturday, CBS. It’s Christmas cartoon time. At 8 p.m. Friday, CW has “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” On Sunday (see next item), Freeform has Disney cartoons from 7-10:30 a.m. And Saturday? At 7:30 p.m., Bravo has the great “Grinch”; at 8, CBS has this amiable tale of a lonely boy helping a reindeer save Christmas.
9) “25 Days of Christmas” begins, Sunday, Freeform. Ever since 1996, this has offered a 25-day holiday marathon. This year, that starts with animation – “Prep & Landing,” 7 a.m.; Mickey Mouse complilations, 7:30 and 9; Marah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You,” 10:30; “Arthur Christmas,” 12:30. Movies follow, including “Home Alone” at 6:45.
10) More movies. A four-day surge includes the classics – at 8 p.m. Thursday, “The Wizard of Oz” on TBS and “Mary Poppins” on ABC; at 8 p.m. ET Sunday, “Gone With the Wind” on Turner Classic Movies. Also, there are at least 10 new cable Christmas films, led by “Holiday Touchdown” (8 p.m. Saturday, Hallmark), set among Kansas City Chiefs fans.