Hallmark Channel diversity

News and Quick Comments

Is it really Christmas already?

As the leaves get brighter and the air gets crisper, life shifts.
We turn to pumpkins and cider, to costumes and … Christmas movies?
Really. The first new Christmas film (shown here) reaches TV on Friday (Oct. 22), nine days before Halloween. There are two more this weekend … then three more each weekend after that.
Those are on the Hallmark Channel, but others – Lifetime, Freeform, Ion, UPtv – will follow, next month. Even CBS, which hasn’t had a new TV movie in nine years, plans two Christmas ones this year. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / October 20, 2021
News and Quick Comments

At last: Hallmark Channel discovers diversity

The Hallmark Channel people say their shows are a lot better now … without quite acknowledging that they were a lot worse before.
The new-look Hallmark has more diversity, Wonya Lucas, CEO of the channel and its spin-off networks, told the Television Critics Association. It reflects “the complexity of what it means to love and be a family in a more authentic, varied and inclusive way.”
That includes racial and LGBT issues. “What I’m really excited about is our first gay lead,” said Michelle Vicary, the channel’s executive vice-president of programming.
She was talking about “Mix Up in the Mediterranean” (9 p.m. Saturday, rerunning at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20-21), with Jeremy Jordan, a Broadway star and a “Smash” and “Supergirl” co-star. “He plays twins …. One is gay, one is straight and, through a comedy of errors, they have to switch places.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / February 14, 2021