A few days ago, news broke that Candace Cameron Bure had landed a new overall deal. The longtime Hallmark mainstay signed a non-exclusive deal with rival network GAC Family in order to create holiday content and much more for the network. And while most likely assumed at least one Christmas movie per year was probably part of that deal, we didn’t really know what all her new network gig would entail. Now, however, GAC Family President Bill Abbott has revealed that a Thanksgiving event will certainly be a part of her contract in the coming year.
Speaking ahead of an Upfront Presentation for GAC Media, Bill Abbott (who formerly was a head honcho at Hallmark Channel’s parent company Crown Media Family Networks) opened up about a variety of topics including what’s upcoming on the channel. Among the information that was listed, Bill Abbott remarked on an upcoming “Thanksgiving programming event” when speaking with Next TV.
The plan is for Bure to host said event, which makes total sense. Over at Hallmark, the star was often a major face during the holiday season as a host intro-ing a lot of that network’s holiday movies as part of the channel’s major “Countdown to Christmas” slate.
That Thanksgiving event will intro GAC Family’s holiday film slate, according to the interview. After the Thanksgiving programming event, GAC Family has direct plans to compete with Hallmark’s usual weekend schedule of pushing out new, original content. For example, GAC Family has plans starting on the Black Friday through Cyber Monday weekend to push out new originals on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (Hallmark pushes a lot of its originals, though not all are on Saturdays and Sundays.)
Speaking of the holiday slate, which falls during the coveted fourth quarter in the U.S. and should directly compete with Hallmark's classic Christmas movies, Bill Abbott sounds bullish about what’s coming in the remainder of 2022. In fact, he says the network had “a lot more time to prepare” this holiday go-around.
We’re certainly selling family-friendly content and quality original movies with talent that people love and resonate with viewers. We’ve had a lot more time to prepare and market and do all the things necessary to drive a much bigger audience. We feel really good about where we will be in the fourth quarter.
Not to mention, the network has brought in a lot of additional talent. Since launching last October, GAC Family has begun coaxing talent to join and building out a slate, many of whom are people Abbott had worked with at Hallmark, over to GAC Media. This includes major names leaving the Hallmark networking, like Danica McKellar and Jen Lilley. Candace Cameron Bure has her own new deal. And other talent has worked on both networks in recent months.
We’ll have to wait and see how the next year goes, but in an announcement post, Bure spoke fondly of her new GAC Family deal and seemed “excited” to get started, though there are still details about what all she’ll be doing left to be revealed. Hallmark pals both current and former also responded back in support.
