More than 24 years after “Survivor” revolutionized unscripted competition television; some 22 years after “The Bachelor” handed out its first rose; and many, many moons after TLC traded informational programming for “90-Day Fiancé,” Hallmark Media is entering the reality TV Hunger Games.
Crazy, right? How could TV’s non-stop Christmas choo-choo possibly compete with armies of “Real Housewives,” “Traitors” and other telegenic people misbehaving? By selling the same thing it always has: relentless niceness.
Don’t laugh. It’s probably going to be huge.
Hallmark’s nascent reality slate is part of its revamped streaming service, Hallmark+, which will replace Hallmark Movies Now starting mid-September. If you are among the millions who set their calendar by the first October sighting of candy canes you may recognize that shift is set to coincide with Hallmark’s annual takeover, which pretty much begins around Halloween.
The rebrand also happens around the same time that regular seasons of network reality juggernauts resume — and when most of the American population will be losing their minds over the proximity of a uniquely dire election.
“There really isn't anywhere to go for really, like, nice unscripted TV,” Hallmark’s head of unscripted programming David Stefanou told the journalists covering its presentation at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday. “You know, we're really trained to watch cutthroat competition, people sort of bringing out the worst in each other. And these shows really do the opposite.”
He has a point. Collegiality is the main draw for the annual relief that is "The Great British Baking Show," which more or less has the feel-good field to itself. But there are very few competition series that trade in heartfelt camaraderie.
Do not be surprised, then, if you suddenly start hearing your co-workers gush about their new “guilty” pleasure “Finding Mr. Christmas.” The show follows 10 promising contenders as they live together and compete for the designation of the next “Hallmark Hunk.” Said winner will play the lead an upcoming holiday movie to premiere during Hallmark channel’s Countdown to Christmas.
It's hosted by “Cake Wars” emcee Jonathan Bennett, who starred in 2022’s “The Holiday Sitter,” Hallmark’s first movie featuring two men in its main romance.
Despite whatever stress boils over during each episode’s "festive physical challenges" (with baby oil and breakaway pants, maybe?) Bennett assured us that the show’s tinsel trials forged the would-be hunks into a brotherhood.
When one critic asked whether the winner might be queer, Bennett answered, "Well, we're looking for the next Hallmark holiday hunk, and I'm a Hallmark holiday hunk, and I'm pretty friggin' gay, so I would say yes. Yes he can.”
Stefanou said “Finding Mr. Christmas” is a prime example of what the company’s reality slate will look like. “We really want to reflect . . . America as it is, and we're seeing people from all walks of life, all ages, all economic levels coming out to play with us," he said. "It's really been inspiring.”
Hallmark has long been a fixture at the TCA's biannual gatherings of critics and industry reporters covering upcoming and existing programming. Over the years its “presentations” amounted to lavish dinners where the journalists were basically there to watch Hallmark executives praise the channel’s stars.
Most of these were hosted while Bill Abbott headed Hallmark and Crown Media, overseeing a generation’s-worth of holiday content starring white actors starring in heteronormative tales. Under Abbott, Hallmark became synonymous with fantasies about harried white women finally finding love by fleeing their high-pressure jobs and urban hellscapes for a wholesome small town with good lighting.
This reputation held firm until 2020 when Abbott was replaced as the CEO of Hallmark Media by Wonya Lucas, who remained until 2023. Abbott, meanwhile, left Hallmark to head up Great American Family (GAF) in 2022.
Lucas helped usher in initiatives that saw Hallmark present more holiday movies featuring non-white people and films starring queer couples, like 2023's “Friends & Family,” the first Hallmark holiday movie featuring two women in the hero romance.
On Thursday Hallmark Media’s current executive vice president of programming Lisa Hamilton Daly told reporters that the younger and “slightly more diverse” streaming audience informed their plans for their upcoming Hallmark+ content.
That includes the usual infusion of new Hallmark movies, including "The Groomsmen," a trilogy or romances presented from the male perspective featuring a handsome Black lead (B.J. Britt), a gay lead (Bennett) and white lead (Tyler Hynes).
What's noteworthy about the company’s reality push is that it isn’t designed to supplant scripted programming, as many of their competitors are doing, but to complement it.
Hallmark knows its target audience primarily consists of women over 50, bringing us to “Home is Where the Heart Is,” a throwback to the days when celebrity carpenter Ty Pennington became a sex symbol by capably building stuff for families. His next-gen version, Luke Macfarlane, will head up room renovations for a family while crafting a meaningful handmade piece for them in the bargain.
Macfarlane is also a gay man and a popular Hallmark lead, further cementing the brand’s drive to represent constituencies they know are watching but whose experiences they’ve only begun to center.
A braver and more broadly appealing concept is offered in “Small Town Setup,” which takes a central Hallmark plot trope and makes it real: parents get to play matchmaker for their adult kids who have, yes, moved away to the “big city.” Oh, but it's get better/worse, because mom and dad also gather their neighbors and ask them to help find a match for their "city single" children, to quote the press release, "in the hopes that they will fall in love, move back home and live happily ever after."
Is this your nightmare? It’s mine, and the possibility of A+ cringe makes me want to watch it. Granted, I am but one person. But if I’m intrigued as a non-Hallmark viewer (and according to Bennett, saying that makes me a liar) I’d wager many others may be too . . . although they may never admit it.
"No one's really doing this, and I see that as an opportunity," Stefanou said. "And I think that these producers and actors are really evidence of the fact that, we can do it, we can do it well, and I think that people will come for it. Because it's something that I think we need right now in the culture."
