The Hallmark Channel’s ‘Countdown To Christmas’ has once again proven to be a major success this year, solidifying its annual dominance in TV ratings. The network’s lineup of romantic holiday films consistently outperforms even the most popular cable sports and news broadcasts.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, Hallmark premiered six new original holiday movies, including the highly anticipated ‘Chiefs Love Story,’ which is reportedly inspired by the real-life romance between pop star Taylor Swift and NFL tight end Travis Kelce. The film featured cameos from Kelce’s mother, Donna Kelce, and Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. According to Nielsen, the ‘Chiefs Love Story’ was the 13th most-watched cable broadcast of the week, attracting nearly 3 million live viewers and becoming the most-watched cable movie of the year across all key demographics.
The network reported that approximately 8.4 million unique viewers tuned in to watch the six new Hallmark movies over the Thanksgiving weekend, bringing the total number of unique viewers for Hallmark’s holiday programming to 25 million so far this year.
Two of Hallmark’s holiday originals have made it into the top 40 cable programs of the week this year: ‘Three Wiser Men and a Boy’ (Nov. 23) and ‘Chiefs Love Story’ (Nov. 30).
Since the debut of its holiday movie lineup on October 18, Hallmark has steadily increased its audience each week. The network rose from being the seventh most popular total-day channel with an average of 387,000 viewers during the week of October 18 to the third most popular cable network, trailing only Fox News and ESPN, with an average of 588,000 viewers during the week of November 25 to December 1.