GO BOWLING FLOAT GETS LOTS OF AIR TIME ON NBC, ABC

Go Bowling’s float at the 2025 Rose Parade, which aired Jan. 1 on NBC and ABC, among other platforms, was a visual delight, highlighting the sport’s iconic symbols: a ball, pins and a sign mirroring the Googie style of architecture popularized in the 1960s.

Per parade rules, all of the surfaces on the float consisted of natural materials such as flowers and seeds. For instance, crushed coconut was used for the pins, while their red crown necks featured cranberry seeds.

Also used on various parts of the float were 500 stems of whaleback philodendron, 5,775 stems of lavender cushion chrysanthemums, 3,650 stems of sprengeri ferns, 21,800 red and yellow carnations and more than 40,000 roses.

NBC was in a commercial break when the float passed its cameras, but the network devoted significant time to it during a “replay” segment at the end of its broadcast. ABC aired the float live, and its co-anchor on the broadcast, Kevin Negandhi, enthusiastically noted that he had gone bowling with his family only a few days earlier and outscored his competitive 12-year-old by getting a spare and a strike in the 9th and 10th frames.