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Its set to return for a second season in early 2024.
Hallmark is able to keep programming like its 2013 because its audiences are still showing up every week.
And yet Hallmarks ratings erosion over the years has been notably smaller than platforms that abandoned original content.
In many ways, Hallmark is TVs last great basic-cable channel.
Obviously, the networks ratings job has been made easier by having less competition from other basic-cable brands.
The main Hallmark Channel currently stands as the No.
Its also the No.
And Id heard a lot about how Hallmark functioned.
Netflix really didnt have a brand; they had a lot of different types of programming.
How does that impact what you do in your job overseeing programming, as well what youdontdo?
I see it as incremental change.
So were just trying to find different ways to tell stories that are still centered on those characteristics.
Maybe that means its not always romantic love as the center of a movie.
Thats the big thing.
Did there used to be some rules about not making things too funny or even goofy?
They were romantic comedies where people ended up in love, but they werent often straight-up, laugh-out-loudcomedycomedies.
What else did you learn from the 2022 Christmas-movie season?
I think we learned how important our actors are to our movies success.
Talent really does drive eyeballs.
They also responded to having a variety of storylines, likeThe Royal Nanny,which was almost an action-comedy.
Look, our formulas are beloved for a reason.
People find them very comforting.
So well continue to experiment a little bit.
The things that feel viral and fuzzy are the things that are grabbing eyeballs at a really high rate.
Youve got to watch it when everybody else does.
Can you give me an example of that kind of event for the 2023 Christmas season?
We have amovie set at the Biltmore Hotelin Asheville, North Carolina.
It has period elements, and we go in and out of a black-and-white movie.
There is a kind of magical-realism element to it.
Its really fun, its a little different.
Youve had a lot of success with some of your year-round franchises, including theWedding Veilmovies.
Have you talked at all about doing something like, say,A Wedding Veil Christmas?
We havent actually spoken about that.
Weve talked about possibly revisiting them for another trilogy or a final movie.
Do you want a producers credit on that one?
I have plenty of ideas.
Why is linear so important for Hallmark?
I personally love the experience of the channel and just turning it on.
It has this kind of holistic feeling when I go there even the ads.
Its kind of a bespoke world.
I love that you go into Hallmark Channel, and it feels like a complete experience.
So then when I left, I brought it with me.
It did very well in the ratings for you, and its coming back for season two this winter.
Why do you think it connected?
Fans were able to find it, and we really engaged them.
Theres a lot of great things about Netflix, but there are just so many shows there.
They just cant devote the kind of attention that theyve been able to give it.
Its sort of the center of our world here.
And I loveThe Way Home.
I loved it from the minute I heard the pitch.
And thats whats been so exciting about it, to see how beloved its become with our viewers.
What do series deliver for Hallmark that movies dont?
Is the audience for both the same?
Theres a lot of overlap.
A lot of our current viewers of our movies have transitioned to watchingWay Home, and love it.
But weve also attracted younger viewers.
We do think it broadens our audience a little bit.
Movies can be a bit of an older demographic that likes them.
And I think series are sort of the centerpiece of a lot of younger-key in viewings.
But youve reversed that, right?
Were definitely leaning back into mysteries.
I think we leaned out for a number of reasons that made sense at the time.
But we werent able to replace them with anything that works better.
I think the mysteries that we do feel very unique to us.
Fans love them, and theyre very devoted to them.
So we really did listen to what our viewers were saying, that they really wanted them back.
Were just looking for ways to continue to engage that mystery audience.
How do you expand the tent?
Do it’s crucial that you basically audition producers?
And I would say that our movies have a pretty high production quality for not very much money.
I credit a lot of that to our production teams and our producers.
But we also have been trying to bring in new producers, and it is trial and error.
We want to have diverse talent in front of and behind the cameras.
Casts were overwhelmingly white and straight.
You and Wonya Lucas have been clear about trying to address those concerns, and youve definitely made strides.
Where do you think you stand now in that effort?
I think its a work in progress.
Its about figuring out the best way to tell these stories that our audience enjoys.
Our movies are about romances.
Theyre not issue-driven movies.
Those are not the stories were telling.
Theyre hard and fast rules, and they cannot be broken.
[Laughs.]No.
As weve started to diversify the stories were telling, we have maybe lightened up on those rules somewhat.
Thats my personal pet peeve with the movies.
Im like, Put some cocoa in those hot-cocoa cups!
But people just love it.
It puts them in the mood, and its fun.
