‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’: How to Watch, What Time and What Channel

Thanksgiving is here, and the day wouldn’t be complete without an annual viewing of the Peanuts special, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The classic television special based on the Peanuts comic strip originally aired back in 1973 and continues to be essential programming for American families, and thankfully there is more than one way that you can get that annual viewing in!

The half-hour special airs tonight, Wednesday, Nov. 27 (also known as the day before Thanksgiving Day) at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, followed immediately by This is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers.

For those who might have missed the event or can’t fit it into their Thanksgiving schedule this week, the beloved special can be viewed for free on ABC.com and on the ABC app the day after it airs — meaning Thanksgiving Day.

For those hoping to catch the special whenever they want, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video for $9.99, and can be rented on Vudu for $3.99 or purchased for $14.99. The special is also available on YouTube for rent or buy, at $3.99 and $14.99.

Hoping to own it on DVD or Blu-ray? The special is available on DVD and Blu-ray at Amazon, Target, Walmart, and other retailers.

Created by late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, the special finds Charlie Brown “in a bit of a bind when Peppermint Patty invites herself and a few friends over for Thanksgiving dinner,” the official ABC synopsis reads. “With Snoopy and Woodstock pulling kitchen duty, a traditional turkey and stuffing meal is simply not in the cards. Will good old Charlie Brown survive the holiday and the wrath of his hungry dinner guests?”

Although a favorite among families, the special is not without controversy. Audiences viewing the special last year labeled the program as “racist” on social media due to a scene showing the Peanuts cast united for the holiday feast when Franklin, the only African American member of the cast, sits on his own on one side of the table. The special has also generated debate over Woodstock’s consumption of roasted turkey at the feast, something that some claims is an example of cannibalism.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving first aired on Nov. 20, 1973 on CBS, and continued to air every year on that network until 2000. The next year it moved over with the other Peanuts specials to ABC.

Photo credit: ABC / Walt Disney Pictures