National Dog Show

Television history

A two-hour edit of the show is televised in the United States on NBC every Thanksgiving; the show airs after the network's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and airs at noon in all time zones except for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands which airs at 1 PM AST (due to NBC affiliates in these territories using the Eastern Time Zone feed), it also reairs every year either on the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving in primetime or on the Sunday Afternoon after Thanksgiving. Actor John O'Hurley and American Kennel Club judge David Frei host, and the show's presenting sponsor is Nestlé Purina PetCare.^[7]

The introduction of the television showings was drawn out of inspiration from the 2000 film Best in Show. NBC had attempted to fill the slot vacated by NBC's loss of Thanksgiving football rights four years prior; it had been airing the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life in the time slot but found that the film was not doing well enough in the ratings to justify continuing to air it there. NBC Sports's Jon Miller noted that the family atmosphere of Thanksgiving made the dog show a perfect fit for the slot after the parade, since pets are often considered an extension of the family unit, and surmised that viewers often had a rooting interest for the breeds of dogs they owned (which Miller dubbed an "alma mater effect").^[2] The show ranks among the most-watched television specials of the year across all networks, with 12,000,000 viewers watching the 2024 telecast, fifth among all network television specials.^[8]