When it comes to the schedule of upcoming Hallmark movies, nothing beats the Countdown to Christmas, and this year’s offerings will include one holiday romance that even football fans and Swifties may have interest in. Hallmark has partnered with the Kansas City Chiefs for Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, and if the idea of romance in Arrowhead Stadium gives you the warm and fuzzies, we’ve got all the information you need. Read on to find out the Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story's release date, which Hallmark favorites and Chiefs players have joined the cast, and everything else we know.
What Is The Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story Release Date?
Hallmark announced that Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story will premiere at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, November 30, as part of the 2024 Countdown to Christmas. Hallmark’s holiday slate typically begins in October, with new movies debuting each week into December, so this comes pretty deep into this year's schedule and will likely be the first movie Hallmark premieres after Thanksgiving.
Tyler Hynes And Hunter King Lead The Holiday Touchdown Cast With Donna Kelce, Andy Reid And More
Two Hallmark fan favorites, Tyler Hynes and Hunter King, lead the cast of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, but that’s not where the excitement ends. Several Kansas City Chiefs players will appear in the movie, as well as coach Andy Reid and Travis Kelce’s mom, Donna. Here’s who has officially signed on:
Tyler Hynes
Hallmark hunk Tyler Hynes will star in this football-centric romance as Derrick, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Director of Fan Engagement. Hynes has appeared in more than 15 movies on the Hallmark Channel, and this year Holiday Touchdown won’t be fans’ only opportunity to see him. The actor will also appear in Three Wiser Men and a Boy, the sequel to 2023’s instant classic, Three Wise Men and a Baby.
Hunter King
The Young and the Restless veteran Hunter King joined the Hallmark family in 2022 and has since appeared in six movies, including this summer’s Two Scoops of Italy. In Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, King will play Alana Higman, who is part of a family of lifelong Chiefs superfans competing in the team’s “Fan of the Year” contest.
Ed Begley Jr.
Ed Begley Jr. has well over 300 movie and TV credits to his name, including St. Elsewhere, Young Sheldon, This Is Spinal Tap and several other Christopher Guest mockumentaries. He’ll be leaving all mockery behind this Christmas, though, when he plays Alana’s grandfather in the Countdown to Christmas offering. According to Hallmark, his character possesses a lucky winter hat that becomes the center of some drama.
Andy Reid
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid will appear in Holiday Touchdown, and while his role hasn’t been confirmed, it’s likely he’ll be playing himself. The man who has coached the Chiefs to three Super Bowl victories is likely to get the attention of some Chiefs fans, even if they weren’t previously fans of Hallmark’s holiday fare.
Assorted Chiefs Players
In addition to their coach, four Chiefs players have signed on to the movie — Mecole Hardman, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Trey Smith (pictured above) and George Karlaftis. All are big names in Chiefs Kingdom, with Hardman being the Kansas City hero who caught the game-winning touchdown in overtime of this year’s Super Bowl. Smith, meanwhile, appeared in the fake Hallmark trailer Falling for Football in January to celebrate another trip to the postseason for the Chiefs. (More on that a little later.)
Donna Kelce
You know her. You love her. It's Donna Kelce, ladies and gentlemen. The mother of “the World’s Favorite Brothers,” Travis and Jason, will appear in Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story after making a cameo in the Falling for Football ad as a wise diner waitress. Her role is unknown, but like Andy Reid, she could be appearing as herself.
Jenna Bush Hager
Former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager is making her acting debut this holiday season, with an unknown role in Tyler Hynes and Hunter King’s movie. She recently opened up on TODAY about her day of filming, and if it offers any clues, her wardrobe consisted of a cashmere sleeveless sweater and a wool coat, and she did apparently have lines.
Others Appearing In Holiday Touchdown
Others who have been confirmed by Deadline for the project include the Instagram-famous Catrick Mahomes and The Howard Stern Show personality Richard Christy, as well as actors Diedrich Bader, Christine Ebersole, Megyn Price and Richard Riehle.
Hunter King told Heavy.com that the entire cast has not been announced yet, and there are some “fun ones coming up that we’re excited about.” Could we possibly hope for a Travis Kelce appearance?
What Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story Will Be About
While the timing of A Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story does seem to align with the famous real-life love story of Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce and global superstar Taylor Swift, the plot of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas offering is unrelated.
According to the network, the story revolves around Alana Higman (King) and her family of lifelong Chiefs superfans entering the team’s “Fan of the Year” contest. The man tasked with evaluating Alana’s family and the other two finalists is the Director of Fan Engagement, Derrick (Hynes). After Alana’s grandfather’s lucky winter hat goes missing, she begins to doubt everything she believed about fate and love, and it’s going to take a Hail Mary to save her Christmas spirit.
‘Falling For Football’ Commercial And Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce Romance Inspired The Flick
In celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs’ return to the playoffs in the 2023-24 football season, the team partnered with Hallmark to create a postseason commercial to get fans hyped. The ad was in the style of a fake Hallmark love story called Falling for Football, with Tyler Hynes starring alongside Janel Parrish. In the story, a postseason fanatic falls in love with a girl who hates football. If the Christmas spirit moves you, check it out below:
According to Hynes, the hoopla surrounding the commercial got the ball rolling on Holiday Touchdown, as he told Heavy.com:
The whole thing happened pretty quick, because of this sudden spark that was lit with the postseason commercial we shot last season. And since that moment, that’s when the conversations really began to happen. And here we are.
It certainly didn’t hurt that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were bringing families together to watch their love story unfold at Arrowhead Stadium each Sunday — a sentiment that fits right in with Hallmark’s happily-ever-after love stories. Hynes continued:
We love them. Their love story has obviously ignited a big reaction in all the different sort of fandoms around the world. I think it’s just the kind of perfect timing for all the above. Hallmark being what is, Chiefs being who they are, Trav and Taylor being so in love. We’re all here for it.
Indeed we are! There's no doubt that Holiday Touchdown should be able to recruit a few Swifties to become Hallmark fans with its Chiefs-centric love story.
Real Chiefs Fans Wore Winter Clothes In 90-Degree Heat To Be Extras In The Movie
One of the secrets of making a Hallmark Christmas movie is how hot it actually is when they have to film their actors bundled up for winter weather. Apparently about 1,000 Kansas City Chiefs fans got to experience that for themselves as extras for Holiday Touchdown.
Lisa Hamilton Daly, executive vice president of programming for Hallmark Media, told the Kansas City Star that the fans shoved ice packs down their backs and inside the scarves that were wrapped around their necks. By the end of the day the cast and crew had reportedly gone through 2,000 bottles of water. Bah humbug!
An NFL stadium might not be the first setting you think of for a Christmas love story, but this partnership between the Kansas City Chiefs and Hallmark for 2024's Countdown to Christmas has a lot of fans excited for Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.
