I love Thanksgiving traditions.
The one I love most? Sitting on a couch doing nothing but watching television for four days.
I can’t contribute much to my family’s holiday weekend. I do not cook, which is for the health and wellness of everybody. I have shockingly bad taste, so I’m not much help when it comes to decorating. A football is more likely to hit me in the face than land in my hands, so the annual family game is a no-go for me. And I work in media in 2025, which is to say I don’t have much to offer in terms of a monetary contribution to the festivities.
But when it comes to fusing one’s body with the couch for 96 hours of TV watching—on that, I am proudly an expert.
One of the most fun parts of Thanksgiving, for me, is just watching things with my family.
It’s the best example of why I love pop culture: It brings us together, gets us to talk with each other, and we get to really feel something while doing it. Bonds and memories are forged and fortified while we simply just watch things. It’s really special.
It doesn’t matter if we’re all putting on our coats and loading into the car to go see Wicked: For Good at the local movie theater, clapping when Santa’s sleigh heads down Sixth Avenue during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade telecast, or just having a marathon of a show like Friends on in the background while we all loudly catch up with each other. (For my family, it’s The Golden Girls.) What matters is that it’s the reason for getting us all together.
With that in mind, I recently asked my colleagues at The Daily Beast what they’re watching this weekend, be it a tradition that they’ve had with their families for years, something new that’s coming out that they’re excited for, or something that they’ve been meaning to catch up on for months.
This is one of my favorite pieces of the year. I learn so much about the people I work with by their answers—and their enthusiasm to participate in this exercise. It’s another reminder of what I’m so thankful for: Getting to write about these things every day for work, and getting to do it with these people.
Here’s what we’re watching:
A Thanksgiving Smorgasboard
My favorite Thanksgiving movies are Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (even just for John Candy’s heartbreaking “I like me” monologue) and Pieces of April (far and away the best performance Katie Holmes has given on screen). However, this Thanksgiving, I will most likely be binge-watching all the TV I need to catch up on, including Palm Royale, The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and finishing the latest season of The Morning Show. - Mathew Murphy, managing editor
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
I was able to get into a sneak preview of this film thanks to a friend, and it was excellent. Rian Johnson weaves a compelling, funny, and emotional story that delves into religion and faith. Standout performances from Glenn Close (when doesn’t she?), Josh O’Connor, and Daniel Craig (obviously) kept me hooked from start to finish. Rian, if you’re reading this, please never stop. - Davon Singh, creative strategist
The Last Holiday
There should be a ban on watching holiday movies until Thanksgiving leftovers are wrapped and refrigerated. But the second the gravy boat is washed, we’re all free to turn on the best holiday movie of all time: The Last Holiday. Queen Latifah plays a woman who has made herself small while dreaming of a big life, eating Lean Cuisines while watching TV chefs cook feasts, planning elaborate vacations she never books, pining over a workplace crush she never confesses.
Then, she finds out she’s dying, and that all of the tomorrows she’s been waiting for need to become TODAY’S. It’s Pretty Woman with terminal illness as the catalyst instead of Richard Gere, complete with makeover montages and fish-out-of-fancy-water faux pas. It’s a lovely, predictable movie to put on when you’re too full on turkey to think. - Emily Levin, vice president, marketing
Basketball
Baseball may be the nation’s pastime, and the NFL may have somehow rebranded “football” into a sport with almost no feet involved. But let me tell you: America runs on dunking.
Sure, Thanksgiving is synonymous with pigskin—nationally televised games, millions glued to their screens and their fantasy apps—but for us true hoop lovers, the long weekend is a full-on basketball buffet. With 36 (!) games between Wednesday and Sunday, there’s no better time to shut your brain off, sink into the couch, and watch elite athletes break ankles and hit logo threes. From kicking things off on Wednesday night watching MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander face off against the coolest player alive, Anthony Edwards, to reheating your leftovers on Friday as Luka Dončić cooks his former team, to flicking through League Pass all weekend like it’s comfort food, there’s more than enough to leave your plate stuffed.
And as for Thanksgiving Day itself? I’ll be taking a page from the players’ book: gobbling turkey, spending time with family, and letting someone else pick the channel. - Aazim Jafarey, associate director of creative strategy
Friends
What television series does Thanksgiving better than Friends? The answer is none because all of Friends’ Thanksgiving episodes are fantastic. I’d even argue these episodes are what popularized the concept of Friendsgiving. I might be biased because I am already a pretty big Friends fan, but the episodes really are top-notch. There are nine Thanksgiving episodes across the 10 seasons (Season 2 does not have one), and they are excellent to watch when Turkey Day rolls around. I know that’s what I’ll be doing this year.
If you want to know which Friends Thanksgiving episodes are the priority to watch, this is my ranking of each season’s episode in order of best to worst: 8, 6, 5, 9, 10, 3, 1, 7, 4. I hope that you will enjoy these episodes as much as I do! - Rachel Rosenfield, community manager
Literally, Thanksgiving
Some friends and I watched Eli Roth’s aptly named Thanksgiving last year. It’s a ridiculous slasher, and I will be trying to get everyone to watch it again. Of course, Roth piles on the gore, but he also takes a stab at the frenzied Black Friday shopping culture. It is fully loaded and stuffed with clichés, but sometimes the basics are all you really need: turkey, mashed potatoes, and a few horrific jumpscares for a good time. - Thomas Levinson, photo editor
Press Your Luck
I can’t stop watching the ABC game show Press Your Luck. I don’t know what to say about it because it doesn’t make any sense, but I just love it when the contestants win 10 years’ worth of string cheese or a home sauna for their pet piglets. “Big bucks, no whammies!” - Alex Rees, deputy executive editor
Maine Cabin Masters
Whoever pitched a show about a family in Maine which (checks notes) renovates clapped-out vacation cabins in, yes, Maine for low five-figure sums probably thought it would never see the light of day. Thankfully, Maine Cabin Masters’ warm-hearted and wholesome property renovations have reached their 11th season on Magnolia and HBO Max.
Every show, another wood-framed cabin—“camp” in Chase Morrill and his family’s Mainer accents—gets turned from dingy to fabulous, sometimes even with the addition of plumbing and heating. Delighted owners relive decades of memories, revel in new fixtures and fittings designed by Chase’s sister Ashley, and marvel at her husband Ryan’s mastery of cedar shingles.
In Maine, it seems, there’s something to be thankful for every time you binge. The only thing to fear is that Maine and the Morrills run out of cabins to transform. - Hugh Dougherty, executive editor
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Halloween is for candy, and so is Thanksgiving—John Candy, that is. His and Steve Martin’s characters, Del and Neal, are thrust together in buses, planes, and even a motel room’s single bed as they try to get to where they need to be for the holiday. In a way, them butting heads in confined spaces for an extended period of time is John Hughes’ adult version of The Breakfast Club.
At first glance, they have little in common—one a genial but toe-stepping blabbermouth, the other a neat but cold prude—but it’s eventually clear that that’s not the case. Some of the dynamics are different than among boys and girls, naturally, but no less funny—or serious. The film, as Roger Ebert wrote, is perfectly cast.
More broadly, it’s also a great addition to what I consider the Hughes cinematic universe of Chicago: Neal is Kevin McCallister’s neighbor, his colleague is Ferris Bueller’s father, and Candy’s arrival in the affluent suburbs is the starting point of Uncle Buck. - William Vaillancourt, news reporter
Survivor
One of the greatest parts of going home for the holidays is avoiding the worst part of being an adult: deciding what to eat for dinner every night. Much like my culinary lack of decision-making, my personal favorite way to consume television is to avoid making decisions about what to watch for as long as possible.
Enter Survivor.
While I have watched 40 seasons of the greatest television show of all time more than once, 25 years of Jeff Probst has offered weeks worth of not making a decision. According to Google, that’s 1,065 hours worth of content, over 44 days worth of streaming. However, I should clarify that I refuse to rewatch seasons 41-49 since the “New Era” is objectively awful. Really, that leaves us with a mere 583 episodes to rewatch.
(If you, too, love avoiding television decision-making and have not yet binged the greatest gift the television gods have ever gifted us, I recommend starting with season 7, “Pearl Islands.”) - Elizabeth Brockway, visual director
The Celebrity Traitors U.K.
It was the squeak heard around the internet, so if you’re extremely online, you may well have already seen the highlight of the first season of The Celebrity Traitors U.K., which aired on the BBC this month. (In the viral clip, Celia Imrie CBE, star of the British stage and a familiar face from endless screen roles including the Bridget Jones movies and The Diplomat, is asked what just happened. She didn’t miss a beat, “I just farted, Claudia.”)
The good news is that the rest of the show is both gripping and hilarious, and it is now streaming on Peacock. It makes for perfect family viewing. I recently edited my kid’s elementary school yearbook, and I can tell you that The Traitors is the only universally popular thing—not just TV show—for all 11-year-olds. The rest of the family can enjoy the likes of Sir Stephen Fry and Olympic diver Tom Daley torturing each other with fiendish mind games — Nico Hines, Global Editorial Director.
Home Alone
My family and I always watch Home Alone on Thanksgiving after we eat, as our first Christmas movie of the year. It’s one of our favorites, it’ll never not make me laugh, and it’s such a great way to end the night with everyone - Tara Goldstein, community manager
Wicked: For Good
A Thanksgiving “tradition,” as of last year and only extending to this one, is going to see the latest Wicked movie with my in-laws at the crack of dawn on Black Friday. After reading Kevin’s review and him bidding his hand to my favorite pop star, Ariana Grande, winning the Oscar, I have high hopes! - Mollie Mansfield, night editor
Bob’s Burgers
Throughout November, I watch every Thanksgiving episode of Bob’s Burgers. It is endearing, it is goofy, it is heartwarming yet hysterical. Hearing Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) voice all the foods of his Thanksgiving spreads will forever make me cackle. - Sam Escobar, senior editor, The Looker
The Parade!
Traditionally, we always watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, first thing. For the ‘movies in the background’ list this year, I’m craving While You Were Sleeping (1995), The Family Stone (2005), and Last Holiday (2006). - Eboni Boykin-Patterson, entertainment reporter
The Vince Staples Show
It’s got an Atlanta vibe to it, but is very unique and hilarious. - Eric Faison, deputy visual director
WKRP in Cincinnati
The WKRP Turkey Report must be found and watched every. single. year. You can find it on YouTube. You’re welcome. - Victoria Sunday, photo editor
Did We Mention Friends?
I will be watching the Friends Thanksgiving episode marathon until someone pries the remote from my hands and switches the television to football. - Jackie Salo, deputy executive editor
Come See Me in the Good Light
If you need an ugly, uplifting cry this Thanksgiving, do yourself a huge favor and stream the new documentary Come See Me in a Good Light on Apple TV. The profoundly moving film, which won the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance, follows the nonbinary spoken word poet Andrea Gibson in the final months of their life after they are diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Cheery, right?
Somehow, it’s not as depressing as you think. Produced by Andrea’s longtime friend, comedian Tig Notaro, Come See Me in a Good Light will make you truly treasure the time you have with your family members—and could lead to some pretty intense dinner table conversations. - Matt Wilstein, senior editor, entertainment news
Black Rabbit
Brit Jude Law has a very believable New York accent, even if he can’t hide his leading man looks, and nice guy Jason Bateman is equally believable as his bad luck brother with an enviable head of hair. Together, they jointly founded a trendy downtown restaurant and do their best to destroy it. Darkly fun and moving. And a reminder at Thanksgiving that there’s always one in every family. On Netflix. - David Gardner, senior editor, politics
Family Film Festival
Thanksgiving is turning into a full-on family movie marathon weekend. With 20 relatives (adults + kids) staying at our house, we’ve got Friday night tickets to Wicked 2 and are planning a Saturday screening of Zootopia 2—the perfect lineup for a cozy, family-friendly weekend. - Reema Rao, SVP, consumer marketing and subscription strategy
