GAF, Hallmark Christmas Movie Season Not Impacted By Strikes
By Movieguide® Contributor
Great American Family, Hallmark and Lifetime have all confirmed that their Christmas TV movies will not be affected by the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes.
“Christmas is a year-round business at Hallmark, so we were able to mitigate early in the year understanding that the strikes were unfortunately imminent,” said Lisa Hamilton Daly, EVP of programming at Hallmark Media. “We’re so grateful to meet all our goals for a full, all-new holiday slate and bring our viewers the content they love most to celebrate the season.”
Last year saw nearly 150 original holiday movies released on TV networks, led by Hallmark with 40 movies, followed by Lifetime with 26 and Great American Family with 18. While the rest of the entertainment business is struggling for content, these channels will fill out their air time through the end of the year.
“We saw [the strike] coming, and we put all of our movies into production in March, April, May and June,” GAF’s Bill Abbott said, per Movieguide®. “We’ll have a full slate of Christmas movies and we produced everything that was scheduled to run in 2023 before the strike started. 2024 is a different story, but for 2023, we’re in a good place.”
Great American Family released their Christmas lineup in March, with 21 original titles slated to release starting in October. These upcoming movies include CHRISTMAS BY CHANCE, with Trevor Donovan and Merritt Patterson, and BLESSINGS OF CHRISTMAS, with Lori Loughlin.
Hallmark has already announced several movies, including A MERRY SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS, with Lacey Chabert and Scott Wolf, and A BITMORE CHRISTMAS, with Bethany Joy Lenz and Kristoffer Polaha.
UPtv has also announced eight original movies to release this year and a music special. Their holiday celebrations will start on November 3.
Movieguide® previously reported:
UPtv just revealed their upcoming Christmas schedule, including eight new original movies, as well as a musical special.
“At UP Entertainment, the curation of an uplifting, diverse and uniquely special holiday offering for our viewers every year is our passion,” Hector Campos, the senior vice president of content strategy and acquisition at UP Entertainment, said in a statement. “Celebrating the true meaning of the season is at the forefront of our selection process, and our movies celebrate the magic of the holiday season with stories about family, love, hope and faith.”
Campos added, “With so many people needing to scale back in different ways this holiday season, we wanted to deliver an abundance of Christmas programming so uplifting, holiday cheer was plentiful for our viewers. We have a diverse slate with something for everyone this Christmas season.”
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