Entertainment Tonight co-hosts Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner will serve as co-grand marshals of the 94th Hollywood Christmas Parade, organizers announced, with the Sunday, Nov. 29 event set to roll through Hollywood starting at 6 p.m. following 5:30 p.m. pre-parade entertainment. The parade is expected to draw 5,000 participants along a 3.2-mile route through the heart of the neighborhood.
The co-grand marshal announcement came via a parade press release distributed by PR Newswire, which states the event will feature Frazier and Turner, the longtime faces of Entertainment Tonight, as co-grand marshals. As reported by MyNewsLA.com, organizers framed the pairing as a celebration of community spirit tied to the parade's longtime charity partner, Marine Toys for Tots. According to Variety, the parade is presented by Associated Television International in association with the City of Los Angeles.
A Route Through the Heart of Hollywood
The announced route is a U-shaped, 3.2-mile path beginning at Orange Street and Hollywood Boulevard, heading east on Hollywood Boulevard to Vine Street, turning south to Sunset Boulevard, then heading west back to Orange Street, per the parade announcement. Organizers say this year's lineup will include 5,000 participants — celebrities from film, television and stage, musical performances, four-story character balloons, floats, novelties and famous movie cars. Grandstand bleacher seats are scheduled to open at 4 p.m. for those hoping to grab a spot along the route.
The Hollywood Partnership, which tracks street closures tied to the event, says the specific timing of full road closures along the route had not yet been determined as of its latest alert. The neighborhood organization's own history of the parade traces its roots back to 1928, when it began as a handful of floats conceived to drum up holiday shopping along Hollywood Boulevard. By the mid-1930s, the event had grown to include equestrian teams, drill teams and bands, according to the Hollywood Partnership, and it was renamed the Hollywood Christmas Parade in 1978, when it was broadcast locally by KTLA.
Hosting Lineup Shows Some Discrepancy
The parade announcement lists Erik Estrada and Laura McKenzie as hosts, with Montel Williams and Elizabeth Stanton serving as co-hosts. A separate scheduling release from Nexstar Media Group, however, names a different lineup — Laura McKenzie, Erik Estrada, Dean Cain and Elizabeth Stanton — as hosts of the broadcast. The two accounts do not fully match, and it is not clear from either which lineup reflects the final on-air hosting assignments.
What is consistent across both sources is the broadcast plan itself. The parade will be taped for airing on the CW network, with Nexstar listing the special for Friday, Dec. 18, from 8 to 10 p.m. ET/PT, followed by an encore presentation on Dec. 24 during the same two-hour window. The parade is also set to air internationally on Armed Forces Network during the holiday season, though the parade announcement notes those specific air dates are still to be announced.
From Jeremy Renner to Entertainment Tonight's Anchors
The grand marshal spotlight has rotated through a mix of stars over the years. A report on the 92nd-anniversary edition of the parade, published by ABC7, described that year's grand marshal as actor Jeremy Renner, with a program that included five floats, 13 large character balloons and equestrian groups alongside musical performances. This year's edition swaps in a pair of broadcast journalists rather than a film star, with Frazier and Turner stepping into the role as the parade nears its 94th installment.
As has become tradition, the parade is expected to close with an appearance from Santa Claus and his reindeer, according to the announcement. For Angelenos planning to catch the event in person, the Sunday evening timing and the long Hollywood Boulevard-to-Sunset Boulevard route offer a now-familiar way to kick off the holiday season on the street where the tradition began nearly a century ago.
