Hallmark announces lineup at upfronts
Channel touts 'Golden Girls,' 30 original movies
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These announcements nabbed the most attention at Hallmark Channel's upfront presentation Tuesday night at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
The overall theme was upbeat: Hallmark became a top-10 ad-supported cable net among total viewers late in 2006 and has seen ratings grow by double digits in 2007 and during the first part of this year. The network also continues to gain subscribers at a healthy clip, ballooning to its current total of 84.2 million, according to Nielsen.
The premieres of original movies have generated Hallmark's biggest primetime ratings, on average, which is why the net will continue to schedule them at a more aggressive rate than any other cable network except Lifetime.
New telepics for later this year include "Second Honeymoon," with Teri Polo and Jason Priestley; "Thanksgiving Reunion," starring Jacqueline Bisset; "The Gunfighter's Pledge," with Luke Perry; "Herb's Murders," with Bob Newhart; "The Ride of Their Lives," with Stephen Collins; "Ladies of the House," with Pam Grier, Florence Henderson and Donna Mills; and "Saving Grace" (working title), with Mark Consuelos.
Fresh Disney titles, which will run on both Hallmark and its Hallmark Movie Channel sibling, include the remakes of "Flubber," with Robin Williams, and of "The Shaggy Dog," with Tim Allen.
Other Disney pictures include "The Princess Diaries," "The Parent Trap," "Freaky Friday," "The Santa Clause," "The Love Bug," "Mighty Joe Young" and "The Incredible Journey."
Hallmark takes title to "The Golden Girls" in February at the conclusion of the show's exclusive contract with Lifetime, which has run the episodes successfully multiple times each week since March 1997. The sitcom originally played for seven seasons on NBC (1985-92). Hallmark's deal for "Golden Girls" rerun rights is nonexclusive and may be shared with another cable outlet.
"Will It Play in Peoria?" is the tongue-in-cheek rubric for a big-deal blowout to launch Hallmark Movie Channel in high definition for the first time. The kickoff celebration takes place in Peoria, Ill., on April 2, with a visit from David Carradine, who stars in the 2006 miniseries "Son of the Dragon," the first presentation to go out in HD on the channel.
Future galas for the HD version of Hallmark Movie Channel will occur in Washington on May 7 and in Orlando, Fla., early in the summer.
Hallmark also commissioned a study showing that the network's older viewers -- its median age of 61 is higher than that of any other general-entertainment net -- should be regarded as desirable to Madison Avenue. Older people are more content to watch TV in real time, going easy on channel surfing every time a commercial interrupts the program. As a corollary, the study, from Millward Brown, reported that seniors tend to be less enamored than younger viewers of newer technologies such as DVRs, video-on-demand and digital pay-per-view.
Presiding over the upfront were Henry Schleiff, president and CEO of Hallmark's parent company Crown Media Holdings, and David Kenin, exec VP of programming for the network.
