Hallmark at 25: grand goals, mixed results

Like many 25-year-olds, the Hallmark Channel (shown here) has grand goals and ideals.
The details, however, remain a work in progress.
The ideals? “We’re here to put more care, positivity and goodness into the world,” said Darren Abbott, the Hallmark Media president.
A few years ago, that felt old-fashioned. Now it may be refreshingly retro.
“In a world where snark and darkness (are) the order of the day,” said Michelle Vicary, the head of programming, Hallmark finds “a different part of the human experience.”
They were talking to the Television Critics Association on the channel’s 25th anniversary (Aug. 5), with a mood just shy of giddy.
Already dominating Christmas with 30-plus new movies each season, Hallmark is adding two new ones for Halloween. Already having filmed in Ireland, Scotland, Greece, Bulgaria and beyond, it’s now streaming (via Hallmark+) a mini-series filmed in Italy, Spain and France. Already having linked films with Graceland, Biltmore and the NFL, it has a Nov. 28 movie that was filmed in Disney World.
That last one reflects two men with roots in Kansas City: Walt Disney spent key boyhood years there; J,C. Hall started Hallmark there. His company, Hallmark, was one of the first to license Mickey Mouse.
While the Disney company has kept expanding, Hallmark has stayed in its lane. It might seem like a mere artifact, with even its fans gently mocking it.
(When urged to give an ideal Hallmark film in three sentences, actress Holly Robinson Peete jokingly replied: “We’ve gotta have a meet-cute. We’ve gotta be baking. And Santa gets a flat tire.”)
The result has been a modest success. Last year, Nielsen says, Hallmark averaged 621,000 viewers. That was fourth among basic-cable networks (excluding news and sports), trailing only TNT, HGTV and Icon.
The channel has tried to update itself … which is the work-in-progress party.
After getting complaints from a conservative group in December of 2019, Hallmark dropped a commercial that included lesbians. That brought complaints that it was a closed shop, only for white heterosexuals.
Bill Abbott (no relation to Darren), who had been the network president for 10 years, promptly left, creating the competing Great American Family. Vicary left a year later. Wonya Lucas, the new chief, promised “a more authentic, varied and inclusive” channel.
She left in 2023, but Hallmark continued its expansion. In 2024, it announced that Hallmark+ — was expanding; in one Christmastime swoop, it introduced three miniseries and several reality shows.
It was a huge change … and a tenuous one. “When we launched Hallmark+, there was some exclusive content,” Darren Abbott said. “We learned a lot of things from that.”
Looking over the current crop, we see:
— “Mistletoe Murders,” which began as a Hallmark+ mini-series in 2024, soon retreated. Last year, it was on Hallmark first, then (like the movies) reached the streamer the next day. The same will happen to the third season, this year.
— Last year, there were plans to debut the third season of “The Way Home” on the streamer. Viewers protested and the show stayed on Hallmark.
— The Hallmark+ pace of mini-series and series has slowed. There’s no more rush of two or three at a time. “Hope Valley: 1874” wrapped an eight-week run on May 7; the current, six-week run of “Paris Is Always a Good Idea” started July 30. A series — about a divorce lawyer who makes a U-turn and promotes love — is coming next yer.
— Hallmark’s separate Mahogany division was turning out three or four Black-emphasis movies a year. It hasn’t had one in two years.
— Some Christmas films have had gay protagonists, but there might not be any this year. Vicary said she doesn’t know, but said Hallmark will “continue to make movies where our two leads are reflective of all of our audience.”
Yes, Vicary came back; after three years away, she was rehired a year ago. “She understands the brand,” Darren Abbott said.
She knows about evolving slowly, while sticking to traditions. And when asked, she promised: “We’re not going to do ‘A Zombie Christmas.'”