Hallmark Channel Announces 2012 Programming Slate

Hallmark Channel announced its Q1 and Q2 programming schedule to attendees of the Winter 2012 Television Critics Association Press Tour today, a robust slate of programs that consists of no less than 9 Hallmark Channel Original Movies. Hallmark Channel Original Movie World Premieres switch to Sunday nights beginning April 15. The network announces plans to create more family-oriented original animated holiday specials, a result of the overwhelming success of its holiday outing with Hallmark Cards' Jingle the Husky Pup. Hallmark Channel also anticipates announcements this Spring on new programming ventures for various dayparts.

"Hallmark Channel has transformed in the past couple of years to diversify its contetnt offering, including robust offerings in daytime, primetime specials and the acquisition of popular classic series," said Michelle Vicary, EVP, Programming, Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movie Channel. "Hallmark channel was built on the TV movie, a business that is thriving and bringing great success to Crown Media Family Neworks. In 2012, we will continue to produce more TV movies than any other network,"

"Hallmark Channel has just come off of its most impressive 4th quarter to date with #1 rated original movies every weekend for 8 weeks from Halloween through the COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS 2011 campaign, and we are enormously pleased with our successes.

"For Hallmark Channel, the key to success is characters that connect in warm, optimistic ways, through stories that celebrate life's special occasions, holiday and family, and the network has a deep bench of iconic talent that audiences find very appealing," Vicary concluded.

The network's movie offerings include:

A TASTE OF ROMANCE, a Hallmark Channel Original Movie, Saturday, January 14 @ 8p.m. ET/PT, 7c, starring Teri Polo, James Patrick Stuart, Bailee Madison and Romy Rosemont. When a handsome former firefighter and single dad opens up a barbecue restaurant, he ruffles the feathers of the pretty but uppity owner of a classy French restaurant next door. As the two grow heated with competition, a romance between them warms up as well, and it takes the man's precocious young daughter and a restaurant reviewer's mishap to bring them closer than ever.

CUPID, a Hallmark Channel Original Movie, Saturday, February 11 @ 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7c, starring Joely Fisher and Jamie Kennedy. An uptight TV talk show host is lonely and looking for love just days before Valentine's Day when she gets a visit from a mysterious stranger who claims to be a love expert. He tasks her with a mission from Cupid to help other couples find true love, and she will be surprised with her own. But soon after she starts playing matchmaker, she finds her own true love has been within reach all along.

CHASING LEPRECHAUNS, a Hallmark Channel Original Movie, Saturday, March 17 @ 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7c, starring Adrian Pasdar and Amy Huberman. A hot shot executive at a mineral company is sent to a small town in Ireland to oversee a new copper plant construction, but construction is held up when the locals claim there are leprechauns living in the land. To overcome their objections, the executive must drop his stuffy suits and befriend the townspeople and the beautiful resident leprechaun expert.

UNDERCOVER BRIDESMAID, a Hallmark Channel Original Movie, Sunday, April 15 @ 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7c, starring Brooke Burns and Gregory Harrison. An agent, who was once jilted at the alter goes undercover to protect a mogul's daughter, a bride-to-be, from death threats. But the agent soon finds herself embroiled with the groom's questionable, yet charming best friend, and unable to separate her bitter feelings from her past to survive this assignment. Between the aunt who is depleting the family scholarship fund, the playboy cousin with an inheritance at stake, and a very angry business partner, almost every wedding attendee is a legitimate suspect.