Actors Leaving Hallmark Channel Over 'Progressive' Values

Lori Loughlin joining GAC

• Hallmark Channel to premiere first holiday rom com centered on a gay couple
• GAC Family's roster is filling up with your favorite Hallmark stars.

Newly rebranded network, Great American Family, has been making waves among fans of the Hallmark Channel, according to Yahoo! News.

Previously known as Great American Country, the network was bought by a group of investors that includes former Hallmark Media CEO Bill Abbott.

The network has been rebranded and relaunched as Great American Family along with a sister network, Great American Living, which will showcase their lifestyle brand.

As soon as the network relaunched, the first order of business seemed to be to cajole some fan favorite Hallmark stars over to Great American Media with multi-picture deals.  In the last year, Great American Media has announced they've signed several actors to deals, including Danica McKellar, Jen Lilley, Jessica Lowndes, and Trevor Donovan. And now they've plucked one of the shiniest gems from from Hallmark's crown: Candace Cameron Bure!

“I’m very excited to develop heartwarming family and faith-filled programming and make the kind of stories my family and I love to watch,” Bure said in a statement.

Not only have they scooped up talent, they've also revived properties that Hallmark canceled or wavered on picking up additional seasons. Great American Media picked up season 2 of When Hope Calls and greenlit a Christmas movie for the When Calls the Heart spinoff. When Hope Calls: A Country Christmas premiered on the network this past holiday season. The film featured Lori Loughlin, who was ousted from Hallmark Media after her involvement in the Varsity Blue college admissions scandal.

Great American Media recently announced Loughlin's return to the small screen in her first movie since her release from prison last year.

Jonathan Bennett, George Krissa

After Hallmark Channel canceled Home & Family, their daily weekday family lifestyle show, Great American Media quickly hired Cameron Mathison, Debbie Matenopoulos and other Home & Family on-camera talent to host their Christmas preview special, Welcome to Great American Christmas.

Meanwhile, The Hallmark Channel has announced its 2022 line-up of original holiday movies—40 in total—that will premiere along with countless other made-for-TV flicks airing around the clock on the network beginning October 21. Among the new films is a first for Hallmark: a Christmas-themed film centered on a gay couple.

The Holiday Sitter premieres December 11, starring out Mean Girls alum Jonathan Bennett as a “workaholic bachelor” tasked with babysitting his niece and nephew during the holidays. Out actor George Krissa co-stars as the hunky next-door neighbor with whom Bennett’s character strikes up a romance.

As Gay Times notes, The Holiday Sitter may be the first Hallmark holiday movie to focus solely on a gay couple, but it’s not the first time the network has featured LGBTQ folks in its holiday offerings. In 2020, Bennett co-starred in the ensemble comedy The Christmas House, as the married gay son of family giving their home a major holiday makeover.

That film followed a public back-and-forth over the lack of LGBTQ characters in holiday movies on networks like the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime. In 2019, LGBTQ Nation published an essay urging the networks to include more diversity in their holiday programming, leading one conservative website to concoct a dubious petition opposing LGBTQ inclusion in made-for-TV Christmas movies.

The following summer, Hallmark’s parent company Crown Media Family Networks announced that it would include movies featuring LGBTQ characters.