The 2020 National Dog Show is a go.
The 2020 National Dog Show presented by Purina will be held this year, in a rare bit of normalcy in the dog sports world during a crazy pandemic-filled year.
This real-life dog show, hosted for the past two decades by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia, was inspired by the Christopher Guest mockumentary Best in Show, will air on Thanksgiving Day 2020 (Thursday, November 26) at noon across all time zones on NBC.
It will take place with only around 600 competitors (compared to around 2,000 most years) as a single-event two-day show November 14-15 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania, and will not be benched this year.
Additionally, no spectators, sponsors and vendors or media personnel will be allowed in the building due to COVID precautions. Social distancing guidelines, mask wearing and temperature checks will be implemented.
(For more on how dog shows work, see our guide to the basics and what the pros wish we knew.)
It will again, as with every previous National Dog Show telecast before it, be hosted by AKC judge and therapy dog advocate David Frei and Seinfeld actor/Family Feud host John O’Hurley. They also host the Beverly Hills Dog Show together each spring as well.
NBC Sports broadcaster Mary Carillo will be providing behind-the-scenes information again as well.
The reigning champion is a Bulldog known as Thor, which seems an appropriate moniker for the champion of the most-viewed conformation event.
Three new American Kennel Club breeds will make their debut during the 2020 NDS, bringing their total number to 207 breeds and varieties. A Sporting Group dog called the Barbet is a water dog from France with curly fur and an impressive beard; a Working Group breed called the Dogo Argentino hails from Argentina as a short-coated hunter bred to capture wild boar and mountain lions, and a Herding Group breed in the Belgian Laekenois, like its cousins, has long been used as a police dog.