This season, a slate of 47 original movies and four festive-themed TV shows dominate the Hallmark schedule — in this case, more really is better.
From familiar holiday motifs to formulaic storylines, Hallmark continues to lean into why audiences keep coming back for more while expanding the scope of its storytelling and diversifying its narrative approach to its holiday films.
Even as the network aims to broaden its talent pool, Hallmark still relies on its go-to stars, such as Lacey Chabert, Nikki DeLoach, Paul Campbell and Andrew Walker, to provide stability and drive audience engagement. The year-old actress, who headlined two high-profile Hallmark titles last season and still holds the network record for most holiday movies, with 16 , ventured outside her usual haunts, starring in the Netflix original holiday film Hot Frosty, which centers around a widow who falls in love with a snowman.
For Hallmark this season, Drew leads the six-episode detective series Mistletoe Murders, where she plays a year-round Christmas gift shop owner with a secret who gets caught up in a string of local murders. Both of her Hallmark roles have connections to Travis and to Jason Kelce, her older son, who retired from the Philadelphia Eagles in In Christmas on Call, which takes place in Philadelphia, Kelce plays an employee at a Philly cheesesteak shop.
In Holiday Touchdown, she portrays a small-town Kansas City diner owner named — you guessed it — Donna. In the film, she plays a woman who receives a letter from Santa informing her that she will find the love of her life, a guy named Nick, by Christmas Eve. Brown also tests out his hosting chops in the three-episode unscripted series Ready, Set, Glow! No Travis, unfortunately. Consider yourself thunderstruck. Cracking the code. Now, when Bowen Yang does a weekend update about reheating nachos on "SNL," you'll know what he's talking about.
