If parade-watching with the Today show crew isn’t your bag Thanksgiving morning, CNN has enlisted its in-house trio of comedians to help inaugurate what it hopes will be a new holiday tradition.
Have I Got News For You host Roy Wood Jr. and team captains Michael Ian Black and Amber Ruffin will all be participating in CNN’sfirst-ever Thanksgiving in America special, which kicks off bright and early Thanksgiving Day at 8 a.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
The cable news channel promises to provide coverage from parades in a number of cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, and Detroit.
“Excited to give some thanks with the @hignfyus crew as we drop in on the @CNN Thanksgiving in America live coverage,” Wood wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday.
Wood, Black, and Ruffin’s inclusion in CNN’s holiday coverage would seem to be yet another vote of confidence for Have I Got News For You, following its official renewal last week for a second season.
The Have I Got News For You crew joins a celebrity lineup that also includes Inside the NBA panelists Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. Other personalities appearing on the special include Bobby Flay, T.I., Kristin Cavallari, and one of the Property Brothers, along with musical performances by Andy Grammer and the Temptations.
The show’s celebrity guests are set to share their own holiday traditions, with CNN anchors John Berman and Erica Hill hosting. Other CNN correspondents will be out in the field, reporting from Thanksgiving celebrations across the country.
It’s the first Thanksgiving broadcast of its kind for the cable news channel, with CNN describing it as one in a series of specials that mark “key cultural moments.” Others have included holiday celebrations The Fourth in America and Juneteenth: Celebrating Freedom and Legacy, as well as special event coverage Eclipse Across America and its 2021 pandemic-era broadcast, We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert.
Thanksgiving in America airs on CNN and streams on Max from 8 a.m. ET/5 a.m. PT until 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT on Thanksgiving morning.
