Free Republic

The Hallmark Channel has quietly surged past MSNBC and CNN in ratings during a season dominated by festive films. Known for its feel-good holiday programming, the network has steadily climbed the viewership ranks since the launch of its Christmas movie lineup on October 18. According to Nielsen data, Hallmark averaged 526,000 viewers at any given time during the week of November 18 to 24. The impressive figure made the network the third most-watched cable channel overall, trailing only Fox News and ESPN. By comparison, MSNBC pulled in 458,000 viewers during the same period, while CNN lagged behind with 314,000. The...

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — and, at least for one night, Hanukkah — at Hallmark Channel. The basic cable network has unveiled its slate of 40 (!) original holiday movies airing in 2020, including The Christmas House, starring Mean Girls‘ Jonathan Bennett as one-half of a gay couple looking to adopt their first child. The lineup also includes Love, Lights, Hanukkah!, a Hanukkah-themed flick featuring Star Trek: Discovery‘s Mia Kirshner and Boy Meets World‘s Ben Savage. The three dozen-plus films feature a plethora of network vets, including Candace Cameron Bure (in her ninth Hallmark Christmas movie),...

Hallmark Channel’s annual collection of Christmas movies starring actors like Danica McKellar and Candace Cameron Bure are designed to spread tidings and joy. But when the network revealed an advance look at this year’s lineup of 40 holiday films — including titles like Deliver by Christmas, On the 12th Date of Christmas and Christmas Doctor — it received a lump of coal in return. Social media immediately noted that none of the films feature LGBTQ characters or storylines and called the channel out on Twitter.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg is blasting the Hallmark Channel's decision to pull four television commercials that featured a lesbian couple kissing. “Families are built on love—no matter what they look like,” Buttigieg, the first openly gay presidential candidate, tweeted Sunday. “Being ‘family friendly’ means honoring love, not censoring difference." In other words, "wholesome" Mayor Pete believes the reason for the season is forcing children to watch lesbians making out on the Hallmark Channel. “This truth will be more important than ever as we rebuild our nation into a place defined by belonging, not by exclusion,” he wrote. The commercials...

News that the Hallmark Channel is looking to add LGBT-friendly movies to its lineup is yet another stab in the back for conservative Christians, many of whom are still reeling from Chick-fil-A’s recent betrayal of traditional family values.According to The Wrap, executives at Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media Family Networks, admitted the network is seeking to air more stories focused on LGBT characters.“We are continuing to expand our diversity,” Michelle Vicary, Crown Media’s executive vice president of programming, told TheWrap for a story published last week. “We are looking at pitches for LGBTQ movies“Like the industry, there is a lot of work to...

Hallmark announced Thursday that it will no longer work with actress Lori Loughlin after she was charged in a college admissions scandal, The Associated Press reported. Loughlin was among the roughly 40 people charged is what officials have called the “largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice.”

When it comes to entertainment, I’m really not in the cultural conservative camp. I watch what I want to watch, whether that is Game of Thrones or Rocko’s Modern Life. Yes, I like action movies. Yes, I like bloody horror films. Yes, the bloodier and gorier, the better in that category. Around Christmas time, yes, I will confess I sometimes watch a Hallmark Christmas movie. They’re cheesy. All aspects about it are too good to be true, but to get into the season and to take a break from my usual viewing of graphic violence, I’ve seen worse. Apparently, though—it’s...

Today we are releasing a beta of the Xfinity TV app for Roku in the U.S., providing Xfinity TV customers across the country even more choice in how they access the programming that is included with their cable subscription.

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After a nearly 30-year hiatus, Davey Hansen and his faithful dog Goliath are back to teach values to a new generation of young people. The Lutheran church is reviving the 1960s-era animated series for a holiday special, Davey & Goliath's Snowboard Christmas, on the Hallmark Channel. It airs at noon today and will be repeated the same time on the day after Christmas. If things go well, Goliath's exasperated "Oh, Davey" will be heard many times again when his master gets into trouble. The original series was produced from 1960 to '65 and distributed free to television stations. Many eagerly...