The Hallmark Channel has launched its annual “Countdown To Christmas,” featuring nine films out of a planned 32 new holiday movies. This event marks the network’s seasonal dominance in TV ratings, often surpassing popular cable sports and news broadcasts. Three weeks into the “Countdown to Christmas,” Hallmark has become the fourth most-watched channel in primetime, surpassing CNN in viewership between 8 and 11 p.m., according to Nielsen ratings. From Oct. 28 to Nov. 3, Hallmark ranked fourth among all cable networks in primetime, trailing only Fox News, MSNBC, and ESPN, and was the fifth most-watched cable network for the entire day. The network’s audience has grown each week since the debut of its holiday movie lineup on Oct. 18, moving from the seventh most popular total-day channel with 387,000 average viewers to fifth with 414,000 viewers, and reaching 446,000 average viewers in the most recent week. The debut weekend of Hallmark’s first new Christmas films made it the No. 1 entertainment cable network among women over 18, outperforming HGTV, Investigation Discovery, and TLC. However, Hallmark holiday movies have yet to break into the top 40 cable broadcasts for any week. As of Oct. 30, Hallmark’s holiday programming had reached 12.3 million unique viewers.