Hallmark to Expand Reality & Unscripted Content, Stars Lacey Chabert & Jonathan Bennett Explain Why It Works So Well For the Network
Hallmark is reportedly planning to expand their footprint in the reality and unscripted TV show world!
The brand already had some big successes with this form of content, which is different than their usual films. Two examples are the competition series Finding Mr. Christmas, hosted by Jonathan Bennett, and Celebrations with Lacey Chabert, an unscripted series focusing on celebrating those who’ve made a positive impact in their communities.
Keep reading to find out more…
THR reports that the network plans to launch titles on the regular channel, as well as their streaming service Hallmark+. Some options include “a baking competition and a murder mystery competition series,” along with the already-renewed Finding Mr. Christmas and Celebrations.
David Stefanou, Hallmark’s head of unscripted content, shared with the publication, “Hallmark is known around Christmas time and around the holidays, but there’s an opportunity to tell those stories year-round. With Hallmark, people know what it is. So with our programming we’re able to embrace it … we can actually make shows that are about the brand. Finding Mr. Christmas, it’s a little bit meta. It’s a hunt for the next Hallmark hunk. We know that those hallmark stars are extremely popular with our viewers, so we formed a competition around it, so you get both your entertainment value, and we actually created a new star in the process.”
About why his show works, Jonathan shared, “What we witnessed was these grown men opening up and being vulnerable and talking to other grown men about their feelings, about their fears, about the things that make them nervous in life in general. I don’t want to say never, but you pick a show and tell me a scene where you had 10 grown men crying and expressing things that most men wouldn’t talk about to their friends, privately, let alone on national television like that. I think that’s where the Hallmark brand came in, we figured out how to do a show where we have competition, high stakes, but at the end of the day, the guys and our contestants feel so supported and love that they can open up and share, and then guess what, they’re connecting with the audience, and the audience is watching.”
Lacey herself added, “Everything with Hallmark, I feel like falls under the banner of putting some goodness back into the world and bringing out the joy in life and connecting people. It’s all about connection and journeys that our audience can hopefully see themselves in and relate to. And the same feeling of goodness and love that we find in the movies is absolutely the focus of the unscripted series as well.”
And they won’t be going for salacious headlines that you sometimes might read about other reality TV shows.
David added, “People are, I think, trained to go to the lowest common denominator: What is the most outrageous, shocking thing you can do to get people’s attention? For someone to come through our door to hear what we’re looking for and know that they can actually make uplifting, positive stories that are going to make people feel better, and not make shows about broken people getting more broken, was a real revelation and a real breath of fresh air.”
P.S.: did you see which TV shows were renewed by Hallmark and what hasn’t been renewed yet?!