Amazon announced back in November that they were enlisting Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon to play imaginary television anchors and host a special parody streaming of The 129th Rose Parade. Apparently, a fair amount of people didn't get the parody memo, as The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish is being bombarded with a bunch of low reviews from people disgruntled at the hosts. The review section is rife with criticisms of Ferrell and Shannon that range from those who were not amused by their antics to those seemingly oblivious it was all a gag. Here's one particularly memorable review:
Please stop talking!!!! Can't hear any of the bands. You say listen in and keep talking. Perhaps your [mics] are still on and don't know it? We want to hear the bands not you two. I really don't care that you are afraid of horses.
That review isn't an outlier, as the show's page is full of folks who don't seem to understand that The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish is meant to be a joke first and foremost. Those unaware of the prank bashed Cord & Tish on everything from giving little-to-no information about the floats to talking over the bands as they perform. One horrified mother remarked that she had to switch the program off when the hosts were explaining what the students of OU do due to a lack of indoor plumbing.
While there are plenty of hilarious angry reviews, there are a few people that are legitimately sad. One in particular was apparently written by a man without a television who was excited to watch the Rose Parade as he had not seen it since the 60s. Needless to say he was a little let down, although portions of this sound as though the review could be fake:
I hadn't seen a Rose Parade since the mid-60's, so I decided to watch this, because I do not have television. How utterly disappointing to not even get to see some of the floats for watching these two morons. I only stayed to watch about 15 minutes. This may have been my last chance to watch a Rose Parade, and the memory of this will haunt me for the rest of my life. I guess I'm just spoiled by the silly old black & white movies from the 30's and 40's I can find on youtube.
While there were many fooled by the characters of Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon, there were also a good deal of people who were excited to see a live streaming version of the parade like Cord & Tish. At the time of this writing, the 1-star reviews for The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish only slightly edge out the 5-star reviews. Given the audience's response, it's hard to guess whether or not Amazon will attempt to do this again next year.
The 2018 Rose Parade Hosted by Cord & Tish is currently available to stream on Amazon. For a look at other shows set to air in 2018, visit our midseason premiere guide. Those wishing to reflect on 2017 can do so by visiting our cancellation guide or top live moments list.
