Former Hallmark Channel head Bill Abbott announced that his new channel GAC Family will be bringing back Lori Loughlin and the series When Hope Calls, which previously appeared on Hallmark Channel.
Loughlin has been in the news for her involvement in the college admissions scandal. She was a regular on Hallmark Channel, most recently as the star of When Calls the Heart.
When Hope Calls is a spinoff of Hallmark's When Calls the Heart and will appear exclusively this season on GAC Family.
Loughlin will appear as her When Calls the Heart character in a two part season premiere with the kind of holiday spin Hallmark and GAC Family viewers enjoy. The premiere is titled When Hope Calls: A Country Christmas. It is scheduled to appear Dec. 18.
The When Hope Calls season one cable debut in February 2020 averaged a 2.0 household rating and 2 million total viewers. The show and Loughlin’s appearance will help drive viewership to the new channel, GAC expects.
Abbott led the acquisition of Great American Country and Ride TV for his new company GAC Media. The networks were officially rebranded this week as GAC Family and GAC Living, and will follow the Hallmark playbook of family friendly entertainment and holiday celebrations.
GAC previously announced that Debbie Matenopoulos and Cameron Mathison, who had been stars of Hallmark's Home & Family daytime show when Abbott ran the network, would be hosting a special on GAC Family, Welcome to Great American Christmas on Oct. 24.
In the premiere of When Hope Calls: A Country Christmas, Part 1, "a Christmas festival worthy of Harper’s Bazaar happens in the town of Brookfield as the community is one of three contenders in the magazine’s search for America’s #1 Country Christmas Town. In the midst of the fuss, a stagecoach appears, and out steps Abigail Stanton, Loughlin’s character, and her son, Cody who have brought a troubled boy to the town’s orphanage."
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Executive producers of When Hope Calls are Brad Krevoy, Brian Bird, Michael Landon, Jr., Alfonso H. Moreno, Kaitlyn Greenough, and David Anselmo. Producer is Kym Crepin. Supervising producers are W. Michael Beard and Michael Shepard. Director is Bradley Walsh. The spinoff series is created by Alfonso H. Moreno.
