Holiday special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer airs on CBS Friday, November 24. The 60-minute stop-motion special tells the story of an anxious reindeer who isn’t in the mood for Christmas, until Santa Claus realizes the deer’s bright red nose may just help him deliver some gifts on a Christmas Eve with some challenging weather. 

Uneasy about his red nose, Rudolph, son of Donner, runs away from home with an elf named Hermey who’d rather be a dentist. They run into prospector Yukon Cornelius and try to stay a step ahead of the frightful Abominable Snow Monster. They end up on the Island of Misfit Toys before Rudolph returns home. 

Santa, meanwhile, plans to cancel Christmas due to the weather, but then realizes Rudolph may be just what he needs to lead his sleigh through the storm. 

Rudolph is a Rankin/Bass production from 1964. Jules Bass, who founded animation studio Rankin/Bass with Arthur Rankin Jr., died last year at 87. Rankin/Bass productions include Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.

Billie Mae Richards voices Rudolph in the special. Paul Soles is Hermey and Larry Mann voices Yukon Cornelius. Burl Ives does the voice of narrator Sam the Snowman.

Johnny Marks wrote the song that launched the special. 

Mickey Guyton will host the National Christmas Tree Lighting on CBS on Friday, December 15. Musical guests include Darren Criss, St. Vincent, Samara Joy and Dionne Warwick. 

President Calvin Coolidge got the National Christmas Tree Lighting tradition going back in 1923. The National Park Service and National Park Foundation present the event, which happens live November 30 on the Ellipse and at President’s Park in Washington. 

Guyton will also perform. She is a country singer who was the first Black female solo artist to earn a Grammy nomination in a country category, according to her website, for “Black Like Me.”

Guyton is a co-host on ABC’s special Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade, which airs Christmas Day. 

Other musical guests at the tree lighting in Washington are Ledisi, Reneé Rapp and Joe Walsh. 

Paramount Plus will stream the special as well. 

The National Christmas Tree Lighting is produced by White Rose Way Entertainment. Kristi Foley and Leon Knoles are executive producers and Renato Basile is producer. Knoles will also direct the special.

The good folks at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, who produce the Peabody Awards honoring excellence in storytelling that reflect social issues and emerging voices, sent out a list of notable Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes from shows that won or were nominated for Peabodys. They noted many shows, including Friends and Cheers, had memorable Thanksgiving episodes. The most famous is probably WKRP in Cincinnati’s 1978 “Turkeys Away” which saw the radio station misguidedly release live turkeys out of a helicopter. But other quality shows produced less well-known holiday-themed episodes viewers should consider, should they be looking for thoughtful entertainment available to watch on popular streaming services. Here is a recap with the Peabody reasoning. (P.S.: Peabody submissions are open until December 12.)

Mad Men, “The Wheel” (season 1, episode 13): “Ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) fights with his wife, Betty (January Jones), when he tells her he doesn't want to go to Thanksgiving dinner at her parents’ house with their two children, saying the drive isn't worth the trouble. Don stays home to work instead, claiming he must now that he's a partner in the firm. In a theme-crystallizing moment for the entire series, Don puts together a riveting, emotional pitch for Kodak's new, wheel-shaped slide projector, using his own images of happy family moments while telling the clients, ‘This is not a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards and forwards, and it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. On Mad Men, the performance of an ideal — that happy family — is more important than the ideal itself, and it's always for sale.’ ” (Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.)

Master of None, “Thanksgiving” (season 2, episode 8): “This installment of Aziz Ansari's impressionistic dramedy became one of the series’ best-known, launching co-writer and co-star Lena Waithe (writing and starring with Ansari) as a creative force. In it, Ansari's character, Dev, celebrates Thanksgiving through the years with Waithe’s Denise and her family. (Dev’s immigrant family does not celebrate.) The progression of years allows us to see Denise come out to her family as gay, and their journey from resistance to acceptance. Waithe partially based the script on her own life, showing Denise from age 12 to adulthood, revealing her truth first to Dev, then to her mother (Angela Bassett) and sister (Kym Whitley), and, finally, bringing girlfriends to the holiday dinner. It made Waithe the first Black woman to win an Emmy and won a GLAAD media award; Waithe would go on to create shows such as The Chi, Boomerang, and Twenties, and to write and produce the film Queen & Slim.” (Streaming on Netflix.)

Modern Family, ‘Winner Winner Turkey Dinner' (season 9, episode 7): "On another show built to deliver strong Thanksgiving episodes — it's a family comedy, after all—this one comes with the perfect sitcom premise: Patriarch Jay (Ed O’Neill) is poised to give a toast to recent family members’ successes, but, as we learn, all of them are built on exactly the kinds of fibs many of us tend to tell our families. For instance, Claire (Julie Bowen) won a Turkey Trot, but only by accidentally taking a shortcut; Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) pretended to have fought off a burglar when, in fact, he injured himself with his own nunchucks. The series' strong cast is at its best here in a simple, silly setup.” (Streaming on Hulu.)

The Sopranos, “He Is Risen” (season 3, episode 8): "A lot of standard Sopranos drama happens in this episode, from the growing tension between Tony (James Gandolfini) and Ralphie (Joe Pantoliano) to the onset of Tony's affair with Mercedes saleswoman Gloria (Annabella Sciorra), whom he meets in their shared therapist’s waiting room. But the family Thanksgiving dinner itself plays almost like a sitcom, thanks in large part to Tony’s sister Janice (Aida Turturro) bringing along her new boyfriend, a narcoleptic Christian who keeps falling asleep throughout the festivities. There's also plenty of scatological humor when a capo dies on the toilet after muttering, "F---ing turkey, it's like spackle in my bowels." (Streaming on Max.)

This Is Us, “Pilgrim Rick” (season 1, episode 8): “NBC’s weepy family drama is in its first-season prime here. In the flashback segments, we see a Thanksgiving when the three kids are young and things don’t go at all as planned: After their car breaks down, the Pearsons must spend the holiday in a cheap motel roasting cheese dogs on a furnace, watching Police Academy 3, and inventing a character named Pilgrim Rick, which is the kind of thing we all know makes the best memories. The present-day storyline reveals a major secret that changes Randall’s understanding of his entire life thus far, and particularly his relationship with his adopted mother and his birth father. This means you’re in for some incendiary Sterling K. Brown acting, one of the best reasons to tune into any episode of This Is Us. NBC’s weepy family drama is in its first-season prime here. In the flashback segments, we see a Thanksgiving when the three kids are young and things don't go at all as planned: After their car breaks down, the Pearsons must spend the holiday in a cheap motel roasting cheese dogs on a furnace, watching Police Academy 3, and inventing a character named Pilgrim Rick, which is the kind of thing we all know makes the best memories. The present-day storyline reveals a major secret that changes Randall's understanding of his entire life thus far, and particularly his relationship with his adopted mother and his birth father. This means you're in for some incendiary Sterling K. Brown acting, one of the best reasons to tune into any episode of This Is Us.” (Streaming on Hulu.)

The West Wing, “The Indians in the Lobby” (season 3, episode 8): “The West Wing had a particular way with Thanksgiving episodes, given its unique ability to balance major national and international crises with moments of humanity and humor. In this episode, Press Secretary C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) negotiates with two Stockbridge-Munsee Indian activists determined to leverage the emotional resonance of Thanksgiving to get an answer to a 15-year-old request, while President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) has a memorable interaction with the Butterball turkey hotline. Runner up: ‘Shibboleth,’ the second season's Thanksgiving outing, in which C.J. deals with the White House turkey festivities while a group of Chinese stowaways are discovered in a container ship in California.” (Streaming on Max.) 

Disney Plus will roll into the holiday season with the November 8 season two premiere of The Santa Clauses series, which promises to deliver more dramatic and comedic twists, according to the series' executive director Jason Winer.

Actor Tim Allen reprises his role as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus in the series — based on The Santa Clause film franchise — as he continues to look for a successor to don the Santa suit. Winer, who served as executive producer of the series’ first season, said season two will introduce new characters as it explores the history of the North Pole.

“The kids’ interest in the series is built in — it’s about Santa and Elves, so the kids are going to be psyched,” Winer said. “What I tried to do with this season is have a lot of fun with the mythology of the North Pole, and the second season dives into the history of that.”

Along with Allen, the series stars Elizabeth Mitchell, Elizabeth Allen-Dick, Devin Bright, Austin Kane, Matilda Lawler, Gabriel Iglesias and Eric Stonestreet.

Winer serves as executive producer along with Jack Burditt, Jon Radler, Kevin Hench, Richard Baker and Rick Messina.

NBC has shared programming plans for the holiday season. Events include Christmas in Rockefeller Center, Christmas at Graceland, How the Grinch Stole Christmas — both the special and the film — and an array of Dolly Parton movies and specials. 

The holiday fun starts with Countdown to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Wednesday, November 22. Viewers get the back stories behind the floats, the balloons, the bands. That same night, A Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving Special goes from 9 to 11 p.m. and offers Thanksgiving-themed sketches from SNL’s 47 seasons. 

The 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade goes 8:30 a.m. to noon on Thanksgiving, November 23. At noon, it’s the National Dog Show Presented By Purina. John O’Hurley hosts. David Frei is the analyst and Mary Carillo reports.

Jimmy Fallon hosts a holiday-themed That’s My Jam on Monday, November 27. 

Christmas in Rockefeller Center is on Wednesday, November 29. Kelly Clarkson hosts. Christmas at Graceland is also on that night, the live music special saluting Elvis Presley. 

The How the Grinch Stole Christmas special from 1966 is on Thursday, November 30, then Shrek the Halls. 

Blake Shelton’s Holiday Bartacular Featuring Ice T is on Monday, December 4, a special episode of Barmageddon. 

Christmas at the Opry is scheduled for Thursday, December 7. Wynonna Judd hosts from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville. 

Trolls: Holiday in Harmony airs Saturday, December 9. 

Barry Manilow’s A Very Barry Christmas is on Monday, December 11 and A Saturday Night Live Christmas Special is on Thursday, December 14. Movie Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors runs Friday, December 15. 

Game show Password Holiday Special runs Monday, December 18, with Keke Palmer hosting and Jimmy Fallon starring.

Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas is on Thursday, December 21. Musical performances come from Fallon, Willie Nelson, Miley Cyrus and others. For those who have not yet had their fill of Parton, NBC has movie Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love on Friday, December 22. 

Frank Capra classic It’s a Wonderful Life is on December 24, as is Christmas Eve Mass, with Pope Francis leading the mass from St. Peter’s Basilica.

Jim Carrey’s movie version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas shows on Christmas Day.  

Then, on New Year’s Day, the 135th Rose Parade Presented by Honda goes from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET. Hoda Kotb and Al Roker host in Pasadena. 

“We take enormous pride in delivering a plethora of heartwarming specials during the holidays that families can enjoy,” said Jen Neal, executive VP, live events and specials, NBCUniversal Media Group. “From the Thanksgiving parade to the tree lighting to our musical events, these programs are a symbol of our company’s commitment to bringing the country together and celebrating one another.”

Fox also shared its holiday programming plans, as did ABC and CBS. 

Fox has shared its holiday programming plans, which includes TMZ’s Merry Elfin’ Christmas, The Masked Singer Holiday Sing-Along and Lego Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular. 

TMZ’s Merry Elfin’ Christmas on Tuesday, December 5 is TMZ’s third annual look back at the top stories of the year. Harvey Levin hosts and celeb guests pop up in the 60-minute special. 

MasterChef Junior: Home for the Holidays, with Gordon Ramsay welcoming nine young culinary contestants to cook up seasonal victuals, is on Sunday, December 10 and Monday, December 11. Ramsay, daughter Tilly Ramsay, Aarón Sánchez and Daphne Oz will crown a winner, who gets $25,000, a Viking Kitchen package and the MasterChef snow globe trophy. 

The Masked Singer Holiday Sing-Along happens Tuesday, December 12 and goes for two hours. It features surprise performances from season 10 contestants, other alumni, and of course host Nick Cannon and panelists Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke and Nicole Scherzinger.   

Lego Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular is on Monday and Tuesday, December 18 and 19. Will Arnett hosts and special guests include NeNe Leakes, Marshawn Lynch, Kelly Osbourne and Rob Riggle, as they pair up with former contestants, including Caleb Schilling from season two and David Guedes from season three. 

Nearer term, The Simpsons has a Thanksgiving episode Sunday, November 19, and Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy have holiday episodes Sunday, December 17. 

ABC has shared its holiday programming guide, which includes The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration Sunday, November 26, a new season of The Great Christmas Light Fight starting that same night, and CMA Country Christmas on December 14, along with plenty of other holiday classics over the next two months. 

Magical Holiday Celebration features musical performances from Walt Disney World and Disney’s Aulani Resort and Spa in Hawaii. The Great Christmas Light Fight has All Stars 2 in its title this time, as the show looks back at some of the more memorable lights displays from previous seasons. The Light Fight season concludes December 19 and ABC has ordered a 12th season. 

The 1994 movie The Santa Clause is on Sunday, December 3. Press Your Luck: Press Your Luck’s Holiday Extravaganza II is on December 5, with Elizabeth Banks hosting. A holiday episode of Shark Tank is on December 8. 

Seasonal special Mickey Saves Christmas is on ABC Sunday, December 10, along with Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, and the movie Frozen. 

The 1970 classic Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town is on Tuesday, December 12, featuring Kris Kringle, Winter Warlock and Burgermeister Meisterburger, among other Christmas characters. On December 13, Celebrity Family Feud, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and The $100,000 Pyramid have holiday themes.

CMA Country Christmas, filmed in Nashville in front of a live audience, is on Thursday, December 14.  

Disney Prep & Landing is scheduled for December 19, then Disney Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs. Nice. 

iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2023 airs December 21 and Home Alone is on Christmas Eve, with eight-year-old Kevin McAllister left behind as his family jets off for Christmas. 

On Christmas Day, at 10 a.m. ET, it’s Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade. 

December 31, meanwhile, offers Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. Seacrest hosts from Times Square in New York. 

’Tis the season for holiday programming and Pluto TV on Wednesday launches its Season Greetings holiday hub with nine channels of seasonal movies and programming.

The Paramount Global-owned streamer is also giving away $10 million worth of advertising as part of its Ads for Change initiative. 

Funds will go to humanitarian organizations including No Kid Hungry, UNICEF USA, World Central Kitchen, World Food Program USA and the United Nations World Food Programme.

Pluto launched Ads For Change last year, donating $5 million in inventory in response to the war in Ukraine.

As part of Pluto TV’s Season Greetings collection, viewers will be able to pick from channels including Cine Navideño, Crackling Fireplace, Festive Fireplace, Hallmark Movies & More, Holiday Lights, Holiday Movie Favorites By Lifetime, Home for the Holidays, Pluto TV Christmas and Vevo Holiday.

Holiday movies include Planes, Trains & Automobiles, An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving with the Carters, Bad Santa, Last Holiday, Everybody’s Fine, A Christmas Festival of Ice, A Nutcracker for Christmas and Hitched for the Holidays.

In addition to movies, Pluto TV holiday fare includes music, cooking shows, holiday lights displays and cozy fireplaces.

CBS has shared its programming plans for the holiday season, which kicks off with The Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, November 23, and includes Byron Allen Presents a Merry Soulful Christmas on Saturday, December 9, and The 25th Annual A Home For the Holidays, a special about foster care, on Friday, December 22. 

Seasonal programming will also include Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on November 24, Reindeer in Here and Robbie Reindeer December 2, the National Christmas Tree Lighting December 15, Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns December 16, the Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas To All! concert special on December 25, and New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville Bash December 31. 

A trio of Christmas movies that debuted last year airs on CBS this season. Fit for Christmas, about a Christmas-obsessed fitness instructor working out of a struggling community center who starts up a romance with the businessman looking to take over the center, is on December 22. Amanda Kloots and Paul Greene star. 

When Christmas Was Young, about a headstrong music manager who needs a hit song for his last remaining client, and falls for a singer-songwriter who has given up her dreams of making it in music, is on December 24. Sheryl Crow wrote the music and is an executive producer. 

Must Love Christmas, featuring a romance novelist with a batch of Christmas-themed books who is snowbound and finds herself in a love triangle, is on December 29. Liza Lapiri, Nathan Witte and Neal Bledsoe star. 

CBS brought back original Christmas movies in 2021 with A Christmas Proposal and Christmas Takes Flight. New original Christmas movies are not on the schedule for 2023. 

Despite changes to how viewers watch television, advertisers can still reach consumers through holiday programming, according to a study by Effectv, the ad sales arm of Comcast.

In an analysis of viewing from Thanksgiving to Christmas in 2021, 92% of households tuned into holiday programming. On average they watched 20 hours of seasonal shows over the period.

There was a 46% increase in streaming viewership on the top holiday networks compared to the previous year, with 79% of streaming impressions happening on a big screen.

Light- and no-TV households were 51% more likely to stream holiday programming, giving advertisers an opportunity to get their messages to harder-to-reach households, Effectv found.

Also: Cable Nets, Streamers Ramp Up Holiday Films Lineup Leading Into Christmas

"As the TV viewing landscape changes, the way households view holiday programming may be changing, but their appetite for the content is still strong," Effectv director of customer insights Travis Flood said. "Consumers still love getting together with their families to watch holiday programming, and today, many are turning to streaming services to do so. By analyzing the way consumers are watching, advertisers can ensure they're reaching their audiences wherever and however they choose to watch."

Effectv has recommended that to maximize audience reach, advertisers dedicate 20% to 30% of their TV budgets to streaming, and the rest to linear TV. The recommendation holds during the holiday season, Effectv said. ■

Dean Cain hosts Masters of Illusion: Christmas Magic 2022 on The CW December 14. The annual special features an array of magicians performing amid a holiday theme.

Cain’s credits include Supergirl, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and film The Black Hole, along with a bevy of holiday movies.

Cain is indeed a busy man this time of year. He also hosts The CW’s Christmas Around the USA, with Laura McKenzie and on December 15; The 25th Annual Family Film Awards, hosted by Cain and McKenzie, December 26; and documentary Ocean Emergency: Currents of Hope on December 27.

Masters of Illusion debuted on The CW in 2014 and is in season nine on the network. The show features magic performed by illusionists, escape artists and other performers, offering everything from interactive mind magic to comedy routines.

David McKenzie, Gay Blackstone, David Martin and Al Schwartz executive produce the show, and Cain hosts.

Associated Television International produced Masters of Illusion: Christmas Magic 2022, which also airs Friday, December 23. ■

B+C has partnered with always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv to bring you a weekly chart we call Promo Mojo: exclusive data showing TV’s most-promoted programming ranked by ad impressions. Our data covers the seven-day period through December 11.

Fox’s FIFA World Cup Qatar is No. 1 for the third week in a row.

The rest of the ranking is dominated by seasonal fare and specials: Hallmark Movies & Mysteries celebrates The Gift of Peace in second place and Hallmark Channel promotes Christmas Class Reunion in third, while CBS gives some love to its Ghosts “Ghostmas” special in fourth place and Disney-owned ABC engages in some synergy by promoting Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration in fifth.

Notably, The Gift of Peace scores the highest iSpot Attention Index (111) in the ranking, meaning viewers were on average highly likely to watch its promos all the way through (vs. interrupting viewing by changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).

1) FIFA World Cup Qatar, Fox

• Impressions: 324,444,398
• Interruption Rate: 1.05%
• Attention Index: 88 (12% more interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 94%, Local 5%, VOD/OTT 1%
• In-network Value: $5,650,935
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

2) The Gift of Peace, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

• Impressions: 258,821,003
• Interruption Rate: 3.03%
• Attention Index: 111 (11% fewer interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 100%, Local 0%, VOD/OTT 0%
• In-network Value: $1,481,517
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

3) Christmas Class Reunion, Hallmark Channel

• Impressions: 243,939,442
• Interruption Rate: 3.70%
• Attention Index: 83 (17% more interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 100%, Local 0%, VOD/OTT 0%
• In-network Value: $1,496,740
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

4) Ghosts “Ghostmas” special, CBS

• Impressions: 226,926,540
• Interruption Rate: 1.13%
• Attention Index: 78 (22% more interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 94%, Local 4%, VOD/OTT 2%
• In-network Value: $3,069,995
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

5) Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration, ABC

• Impressions: 189,710,059
• Interruption Rate: 1.61%
• Attention Index: 91 (9% more interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 91%, Local 8%, VOD/OTT 1%
• In-network Value: $1,457,336
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

* Data provided by iSpot.tv, TV Ad Measurement for Disruptive Brands *

For more information about Promo Mojo — including the chart positions of promos beyond the top five — contact mediapartnerships@ispot.tv.

Impressions: The total impressions within all U.S. households including National Linear (Live & Time-shifted), VOD plus OTT, and Local.

Attention Score: Measures the propensity of consumers to interrupt an ad play on TV. The higher the score, the more complete views. Actions that interrupt an ad play include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV.

Attention Index: Represents the Attention of a specific creative or program placement vs. the average in its respective industry. The average is represented by a score of 100, and the total index range is from 0 through 200. For example, an attention index of 125 means that there are 25% fewer interrupted ad plays compared to the average.

Impression Types: Impression types tracked include National (Live + Time-shifted), Local, VOD & OTT. See below for further details.

In-Network Value: Estimated media value of in-network promos.

Out-of-Network Spend: The estimated amount spent on TV airing time for this promo's spots during a given date range.

National: Live: A national promo which was viewed during live linear television broadcast or same day, via DVR or on-demand.

Local: A promo that was aired during a local ad break slot.

VOD: This includes promos that run in on-demand content past three days (i.e. do not contain the linear promo load).

OTT: On-demand streaming content (i.e. Hulu, Roku, Fire TV Stick, Chromecast). ■

Content Spotlight is a podcast from Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable that looks at new and returning television series through the eyes of the show’s stars and creators.

Multichannel News’ Senior Content Producer, Programming R. Thomas Umstead recently spoke to multiple Grammy Award-winning Gospel music artist Kirk Franklin about Lifetime’s December 10 holiday film Kirk Franklin's The Night Before Christmas, in which he serves as executive producer and writer/producer of several original songs in the film.

Franklin talks about the movie -- which stars Naturi Naughton (Power) and follows an estranged mother and daughter who find the Christmas spirit while stranded in a church on Christmas Eve -- as well as his future television aspirations.

Also: Cable Nets, Streamers Ramp Up Holiday Films Lineup Leading Into Christmas

B+C has partnered with always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv to bring you a weekly chart we call Promo Mojo: exclusive data showing TV’s most-promoted programming ranked by ad impressions. Our data covers the seven-day period through December 4.

Fox’s FIFA World Cup Qatar is No. 1 for the second week in a row.

The rest of the ranking is dominated by holiday movies: CBS promotes Fit for Christmas in second place, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries hypes The Holiday Stocking in third, Freeform celebrates its 25 Days of Christmas programming block in fourth, and Hallmark Channel gives some love to A Fabled Holiday in fifth.

Notably, Fit for Christmas scores the highest iSpot Attention Index (123) in the ranking, meaning viewers were on average highly likely to watch its promos all the way through (vs. interrupting viewing by changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).

1) FIFA World Cup Qatar, Fox

• Impressions: 423,251,902
• Interruption Rate: 1.88%
• Attention Index: 82 (18% more interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 93%, Local 5%, VOD/OTT 2%
• In-network Value: $5,684,621
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $82,697

2) Fit for Christmas, CBS

• Impressions: 292,681,785
• Interruption Rate: 0.64%
• Attention Index: 123 (23% fewer interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 97%, Local 2%, VOD/OTT 1%
• In-network Value: $2,741,242
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

3) The Holiday Stocking, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

• Impressions: 268,977,343
• Interruption Rate: 3.76%
• Attention Index: 92 (8% more interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 100%, Local 0%, VOD/OTT 0%
• In-network Value: $1,628,490
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

4) 25 Days of Christmas, Freeform

• Impressions: 251,998,579
• Interruption Rate: 1.25%
• Attention Index: 110 (10% fewer interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 96%, Local 3%, VOD/OTT 1%
• In-network Value: $1,123,991
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $213,869

5) A Fabled Holiday, Hallmark Channel

• Impressions: 236,670,171
• Interruption Rate: 2.95%
• Attention Index: 109 (9% fewer interruptions than avg.)
• Imp. Types: National 100%, Local 0%, VOD/OTT 0%
• In-network Value: $1,459,077
• Out-of-network Est. Spend: $129,788

* Data provided by iSpot.tv, TV Ad Measurement for Disruptive Brands *

For more information about Promo Mojo — including the chart positions of promos beyond the top five — contact mediapartnerships@ispot.tv.

Impressions: The total impressions within all U.S. households including National Linear (Live & Time-shifted), VOD plus OTT, and Local.

Attention Score: Measures the propensity of consumers to interrupt an ad play on TV. The higher the score, the more complete views. Actions that interrupt an ad play include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV.

Attention Index: Represents the Attention of a specific creative or program placement vs. the average in its respective industry. The average is represented by a score of 100, and the total index range is from 0 through 200. For example, an attention index of 125 means that there are 25% fewer interrupted ad plays compared to the average.

Impression Types: Impression types tracked include National (Live + Time-shifted), Local, VOD & OTT. See below for further details.

In-Network Value: Estimated media value of in-network promos.

Out-of-Network Spend: The estimated amount spent on TV airing time for this promo's spots during a given date range.

National: Live: A national promo which was viewed during live linear television broadcast or same day, via DVR or on-demand.

Local: A promo that was aired during a local ad break slot.

VOD: This includes promos that run in on-demand content past three days (i.e. do not contain the linear promo load).

OTT: On-demand streaming content (i.e. Hulu, Roku, Fire TV Stick, Chromecast). ■

Vizio is showing its Yuletide spirit by launching Winter Watchland, its annual collection of free holiday movies, programs and music.

Winter Watchland appears on the Vizio home screen with a carousel featuring content including the world premiere of The Christmas Spirit from Maverick Entertainment Group. Also featured are CTV premieres of Christmas Lucky Charm, Santa’s Got Style and Christmas on the Slopes from Brain Power Studio and A Unicorn for Christmas from MarVista Entertainment.

The titles are available on demand and on Vizio Watch Free Plus.

Also: Cable Nets, Streamers Ramp Up Holiday Films Lineup Leading Into Christmas

"Fans will discover both new and old holiday-themed programming with this curated collection that is sure to keep viewers in the holiday spirit well into the New Year," said Christina Ruiz, senior director of product marketing & engagement. "We are pleased to bring back 'Winter Watchland' to living rooms across the country by serving up an expansive line-up of seasonal content that audiences love."

Vizio users will also find a Vizio Holiday Movies Channel, an on-demand holiday hub and the Vizio Fireplace Channel. ■

Cable networks and streaming services are entering the last phase of its nearly three-month run of original holiday films, with more than 50 movies scheduled to debut over the next 25 days from such cable services as Lifetime, Hallmark Channel, VH1, Great American Family and UPtv as well as streaming services BET Plus, HBO Max and Shudder.

Below is a partial list of remaining holiday-themed movies debuting on cable and streaming services, along with their premiere dates.

December 1 

Rolling into Christmas (BET Plus)

Serving Up the Holidays (Lifetime)

A Hollywood Christmas (HBO Max)

December 2 

Christmas with the Campbells (AMC Plus)

A Big Fat Family Christmas (Hallmark Channel)

Cloudy With a Chance of Christmas (Lifetime)

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (Netflix)

Christmas in the Wilds (Uptv)

December 3

Christmas on Candy Cane Lane (Great American Family)

A Fabled Holiday (Hallmark Channel)

A New Orleans Noel (Lifetime)

The Great Holiday Bake War (OWN)

The Holiday Stocking (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)

Christmas on the Slopes (UpTV)

December 4

B&B Merry (Great American Family)

Undercover Holiday (Hallmark Channel)

Merry Textmas (Lifetime)

Christmas on the Rocks (UPtv)

December 8

A Miracle Before Christmas (BET Plus)

Scentsational Christmas (Lifetime)

December 9

Aisle Be Home For Christmas (Great American Family)

The Most Colorful Time of the Year (Hallmark Channel)

A Recipe for Joy (Lifetime)

Something From Tiffany’s (Prime Video)

Christmas Bloody Christmas (Shudder)

December 10

Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas (Lifetime)

A Prince For the Holidays (Great American Family)

Christmas Class Reunion (Hallmark Channel)

The Gift of Peace (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)

A Christmas Fumble (OWN)

A Royal Christmas Match (UPtv)

December 11

The Holiday Sitter (Hallmark Channel) 

Single and Ready To Jingle (Lifetime)

Santa’s Got Style (UPtv)

A Christmas Prayer (TV One)

December 12

A Nashville Country Christmas (Paramount Network)

December 15

A Blackjack Christmas (BET Plus)

Record Breaking Christmas (Lifetime)

December 16

Holiday Heritage (Hallmark Channel)

A Christmas to Treasure (Lifetime)

The Apology (Shudder)

December 17

A Brush With Christmas Romance (Great American Family)

Five More Minutes: Moments Like These (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)

The Holiday Dating Guide (Lifetime)

Sappy Holiday (UPtv)

December 18

The Art of Christmas (Great American Family)

Hanukkah on Rye (Hallmark Channel)

Wrapped Up in Love (Lifetime)

A Vintage Christmas (UPtv)

December 19

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (Hallmark Channel)

December 21

Fuhgeddabout Christmas (VH1)

December 22

A Christmas Gift (BET Plus)

December 24

The Snowball Effect (UPtv)

December 25

Christmas in Wolf Creek (UPtv)

CBS celebrates Ghostmas, two Christmas themed episodes of comedy Ghosts,
December 15. In Part One, Jay’s sister Bela (played by Punam Patel) visits Woodstone Mansion and brings an adoring male friend, inspiring Samantha to spark a romance between the visitors in the spirit of the holiday rom-coms she adores. The ghosts, meanwhile, have conjured up a very different holiday plan for Trevor and Bela. 

Utkarsh Ambudkar plays Jay and Rose McIver portrays Samantha. 

Also in Part One, Isaac has an awkward encounter with Nigel that forces him to look back on events in his life. 

In Part Two, Samantha and Thorfinn get caught in the crossfire as the scheme Bela and the ghosts have worked up goes horribly awry. Also, Isaac’s marriage to Beatrice sheds light on how apprehensive he has been in communicating his feelings to Nigel.

Among the ghosts, Asher Grodman is Trevor, Devan Chandler Long is Thorfinn, Brandon Scott Jones is Isaac and Rebecca Wisocky plays Hetty. In terms of guest cast, John Hartman plays Nigel and Hillary Anne Matthews portrays Beatrice. 

Jay Karas directed both Ghostmas episodes. 

Joe Port and Joe Wiseman are the showrunners on Ghosts, which is in season two. ■

Hallmark Channel’s original holiday film Three Wise Men and a Baby delivered the biggest audience of the year for a cable original movie in its November 19 premiere, according to network officials.

The film, which follows three bickering brothers who find themselves caring for a baby anonymously left in their care, averaged 3.6 million viewers according to Nielsen ratings provided by Hallmark. The film stars Andrew Walker, Tyler Hynes and Paul Campbell. 

Three Wise Men and a Baby -- which also features Margaret Colin who starred in the 1987 Three Men and a Baby theatrical film -- is the most-watched entry of Hallmark’s Countdown for Christmas offering of 40 original holiday films which debuted in late October. 

Also: Weekly Cable Ratings: ESPN Returns to Top Spot in Primetime

The films have helped Hallmark Channel finish among the top five most-watched networks for the month of November, according to Nielsen.■

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas to GAC Media CEO Bill Abbott and the other elves selling advertising on Great American Family’s original movies and other holiday programming.

Abbott, the former Hallmark Channel head who started up GAC last year and is following the Hallmark holiday programming playbook, told Broadcasting+Cable that top tier sponsors including Dairy Queen, Physicians Mutual, Johnson & Johnson, KImberly-Clark, L’Oreal, Chase and Boar’s Head are advertising on the network, many for the first time.

"We had such a successful upfront," Abbot said. "We picked off a lot of what was probably some low-hanging fruit too. And next [year] we’ll have that next level of success with more of those blue chip advertisers and different categories and drive revenue to greater levels."

Kristen Roberts, chief revenue officer and executive VP of programming at GAC Media told B+C that dollar volume of ad commitments doubled in the upfront and that prices were up about 50% on a cost-per-thousand viewers basis.

Most of those advertisers signed up to advertise on GAC year round, but some are advertising only in the holiday-heavy fourth quarter.

“We anticipate we’re always going to see that. Our highest ratings of the year are in the fourth quarter, so we do try to push as many dollars into the fourth quarter as possible,” Roberts said. “It's probably about 30% or so [of revenue] falling in the fourth quarter.”

At least one advertiser is close to making a product integration deal, but GAC didn’t sell “presented by” packages for individual movies or the season this year. Those deals will be available next year to help GAC push up prices, Abbott noted.

Being small and new has made it easier for Great American Family to navigate a weaker scatter market because, at this point, it doesn't take too many ad dollars to meet its revenue goals.

Roberts expects Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend programming to be attractive to advertisers looking to engage shoppers, with movies starring Candace Cameron Bure, Danica McKellar and Gladys Knight.

Just as many of the stars of GAC’s new movies are familiar to Hallmark movie fans, most of the new GAC advertisers were clients Abbott and Roberts knew from their time at Hallmark, Abbott doubted Hallmark would be feeling the pinch because of GAC poaching this year. “Nobody’s holding a benefit on their behalf. I think they’re doing quite well for themselves” Abbott said. “We wish them success.”

Great American Family plans to run Christmas movies 24 hours a day, seven days a week from October 21 through the end of the year under its Great American Christmas umbrella. That includes 18 new titles, a 50% increase from last year, when the channel was known as GAC Family.

This season’s first film, Destined at Christmas, set a ratings record for the network with 540,000 viewers for its premiere, accordion to Nielsen. iSpot.TV estimates that the movie generated 60.5 million TV ad impressions over all viewing and $323,000 in ad spending from brands including Revlon, Physicians Mutual, NetCredit, Marathon Petroleum and Home Depot.

GAC’s October 29 film Catering Christmas generated 36 million ad impressions and $214,000 in spending, according to iSpot.

Royal Christmas on Ice, the November 5 film, had 28.4 million impressions and $171,000 in ad spending and Love at the Christmas Contest generated 20.5 million ad impressions and revenue of $147,000.

Christmas wasn’t as jolly last year for GAC. Abbott closed the deal to acquire Great American Country and Ride TV in July of 2021. At that point the previous owner of GAC, Discovery, had conducted upfront sales.

So when Abbott decided to load up Great American Family (then known as GAC Family) with original holiday movies, most of the network inventory was already committed and most advertisers had already allocated their spending.

Rushing out that first batch of holiday programming last season was a decision Abbott second guessed.

‘“We learned that you don’t just put Christmas trees on the air and get ratings. Last year we tried to do that,” Abbott said. And while he questioned the strategy for a while, now he thinks it was the right thing to do.

“We’ve got a library that has quality movies in it with talent that viewers know and love. And that is making all the difference in terms of this year’s schedule,” Abbott said.

“Doing what we did last year was necessary so that we could get to this point where we can be Christmas 24/7. The viewers who have found us for the first time this year, those movies are new to them,” added Roberts. I think we’re seeing a lot of that right now in the ratings.”

Having established the quality of the movies it would air also put Great American Family in a stronger position with advertisers. Going into this year we had a much bigger base of advertisers and volume of dollars, Roberts said.

Still since Abbott left Hallmark, the Christmas movie category has gotten a lot more crowded with broadcast networks, cable channels and streaming services all getting into the holiday spirit.

“I think it's gotten more challenging. You have to be that much more creative and you know, that much more focused on associating their message with your environment and that much more aggressive,” Abbott said.

"It’s so crowded out there, it takes a long time to build a brand and build awareness," he said. "Even in the ad community, we have really strong relationships but there’s a lot of choices out there."

For advertisers that bought Great American Family beyond the fourth quarter, the network will be airing 20 original romantic comedy movies that will air over the course of the year.

Starting up original series is probably still a few years down the road, Abbott said.

GAC launched its Great American Community app in September, offering 15 original short-form series.

Abbott said the app has gotten a lot of people to sign up, but didn’t share specific numbers. “It’s a heavy lift, frankly. We’re creating content at a very feverish pace with five videos dropping a day.

He said that as expected, people are gravitating toward videos about cooking, decorating and featuring talent from the network. Others haven’t drawn as much viewership.

But the app is generating a lot of data about the Great American Living audience and some of the short-form videos could serve as backdoor pilots for that channel.

“It's kind of our season one, and we’re going to take those learnings as we move into season 2 and apply them, especially from an experience point of view and what community stands for,” he said. “If nothing else, it’s a terrific brand extension.” ■

Lindsay Lohan is the lead in holiday movie Falling for Christmas, which premieres on Netflix November 10. Lohan plays a spoiled hotel heiress named Sierra who has a skiing accident, suffers from amnesia, and finds herself in the care of a handsome, blue-collar lodge owner and his precocious daughter with Christmas days away.

Chord Overstreet plays the lodge owner, Jake.

Back in March, Lohan and Netflix worked out a deal where the actress would star in two films.

In September, Lohan starred in the Netflix movie Irish Wish.

A New York Times review of Falling for Christmas said the movie does not exactly break new ground in terms of holiday movies. “Falling for Christmas isn’t a Hallmark Channel original, but it certainly resembles one. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A gallant blue-collar widower strikes up an improbable romance with a wealthy, stuck-up heiress betrothed to a cocky himbo who is written expressly to be disliked. The rich young woman and the blue-collar guy don’t have much in common at first, but she soon shows a predilection for domestic labor, making it clear that she can be reformed. But her fiancé is irredeemable, because he’s on his phone a lot and uses terms of endearment like ‘angelcakes’.”

The film runs for an hour and 33 minutes. George Young, Jack Wagner and Olivia Perez are also in the cast.

Lohan’s movies include The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. She described the Christmas movie, on Good Morning America, as “the perfect script full of love and family and romance and joy all in one.” ■

MeTV's "A Very Merry MeTV" programming event starts Sunday, November 20, and continues through Christmas Day. The event has both Thanksgiving- and Christmas-themed episodes of vintage series, including Gilligan's Island, My Three Sons and The Beverly Hillbillies, with the Christmas fare beginning November 27.

Commemorating what would've been Charles Schulz's 100th birthday (November 26), MeTV has movies A Boy Named Charlie Brown on Sunday, November 20 and Snoopy Come Home on Sunday, November 27. A Boy Named Charlie Brown, from 1969, sees Charlie enter a spelling bee, while Snoopy, Come Home!, from 1972, sees Snoopy sneak off to visit a girl in the hospital, only to find dogs are not all that welcome in many public places. MeTV said the two films are the only Peanuts holiday specials on broadcast TV this year.

Part 1 of episode "The Thanksgiving Story," from The Waltons, airs November 23, and Part 2 is on Thanksgiving Day.

On Saturday, December 3, original horror series Svengoolie features movie The Raven, followed by a special one-hour Sventoonie Christmas special, It's a Wonderful Loss of Life featuring the movie The Great Rupert.

Morning show Toon In with Me has a primetime special December 5 when Tiny Toony's Christmas Carol airs, featuring Bill the Cartoon Curator (Bill Leff), Toony the Tuna (Kevin Fleming) and the gang as they present classic holiday shorts.

The Waltons also airs on Christmas Day, including episodes "The Best Christmas," "The Children's Carol" and "Grandma Comes Home," among others. ■

ABC has shared its holiday programming lineup, which includes the Backstreet Boys-backed A Very Backstreet Holiday and the John Legend project Finding Harmony, among other specials, movies and Christmas classics.

Mickey Saves Christmas, a new stop-motion special, is on Sunday, November 27, along with Olaf's Frozen Adventure and The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration.

November 28 is the season premiere of The Great Christmas Light Fight. November 29, Diane Sawyer hosts special Love Actually: 20 Years Later.

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and CMA Country Christmas are on Thursday, December 1.

Holiday specials for gamers Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck and The $100,000 Pyramid are on December 6, and holiday episodes for The Conners, The Goldbergs, Abbott Elementary and Home Economics.

The Wonderful World of Disney: Frozen II has its broadcast premiere Thursday, December 8.

On December 13, Disney Prep & Landing and Disney Prep & Landing 2: Naughty Vs. Nice are on.

A Very Backstreet Holiday and Finding Harmony are on December 14. The Backstreet Boys perform songs from a new holiday album, along with classic hits. Finding Harmony features chorus director David Brown leading a chorus in John Legend's hometown of Springfield, Ohio.

Toy Story That Time Forgot and Shrek the Halls are on ABC December 20. Movie Home Alone is on December 24, and Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade is on December 25.

The Year: 2022 happens Monday, December 26, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest happens Saturday, December 31. ■

Great American Family kicks off its Great American Christmas annual event Friday, October 21. The stunt features original Christmas movies every weekend, and a variety of Christmas movies all day long through the end of the year. There are 18 new original movies on the cable network, a 50% increase over last year. 

Appearing in the movies are Candace Cameron Bure, Danica McKellar, Jill Wagner, Cameron Mathison and Gladys Knight, among others. 

Elsewhere, Hallmark Media also kicks off its 40-movie "Countdown to Christmas" Friday night, with Noel Next Door, starring Corey Sevier and Natalie Hall. Hallmark channels roll out new original movies in the holiday spirit on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Scripps Networks outlets also get into the act with original holiday movies starting next month.

Kicking off the original movies is Destined at Christmas on October 22. Shae Robins and Casey Elliott are in the cast, as Kim and Theo meet amid Black Friday shopping madness and feel a spark between them. 

A week later, Catering Christmas has Merritt Patterson and Daniel Lissing in the cast. A fledgling caterer is hired by a foundation director to cater the Christmas Gala, and falls for the director's nephew.  

Love at the Christmas Contest (wt), about a tree-decorating contest, is on November 6 and A Merry Christmas Wish, about a New York City advertising executive who returns home to sell the family farm and reconnects with her childhood friend while organizing the Winter Wonderland event, is on November 12. 

Later on that month, Candace Cameron Bure Presents: A Christmas … Present, about a busy couple who spend Christmas at the home of the wife's widowed brother, is on November 27. The final new film, on December 18, is The Art of Christmas, about a struggling artist who takes a job teaching at a local elementary school, and learns a few lessons herself.

Great American Family is the former GAC Family. ■

Scripps Networks-owned Ion and Bounce are reaching for the holidays with five original films that will appear in November and December.

The films, featuring Billy Baldwin, Vivica A. Fox, Jackée Harry and Tom Arnold, are part of nearly 200 hours of holiday programming that will appear on the multiplatform channels.

Ion’s movies kick off with The Case of the Christmas Diamond on November 20, starring Billy Baldwin.

Dognapped: Hound for the Holidays premieres on Ion November 28, The Search for Secret Santa gets unwrapped December 4 and A Prince and Pauper Christmas has its debut December 11.

Bounce will premiere Faith Heist: A Christmas Caper on November 26. The movie is a sequel to Faith Heist, with Jonathan Langdon as Pastor Benjamin. ■

The CW has shared its holiday programming plans, with the festivities beginning November 20 with movie A Waltons Thanksgiving, and continuing November 25 with Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Grandma, about a grandmother who goes missing on Christmas Eve, also airs December 14 and 23.  

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now? is also on November 25 and documentary Silent Night – A Song For the World airs November 26. 

Rock documentary Freddie Mercury: The Final Act airs December 1 and last year’s Waltons movie, The Waltons’ Homecoming, is on December 5. Greatest Holiday Commercials Countdown 2022 airs December 7 and Penn & Teller: Merry Fool Us is on December 9. Alyson Hannigan hosts the latter. 

Dogs of the Year 2022 is on December 12, with Kevin Frazier and Keltie Knight hosting. Masters of Illusion: Christmas Magic 2022, hosted by Dean Cain, is on December 14. Christmas Around the USA, hosted by Cain and Laura McKenzie, premieres December 15. 

The 90th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade airs December 16 and iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2022 is on December 17. 

World’s Funniest Animals: Christmas is on December 19, with Elizabeth Stanton hosting. Beebo Saves Christmas premieres December 21, with Chris Kattan voicing Sprinkles. 

On December 26, it’s 25th Annual Family Film Awards, hosted by Dean Cain and Laura McKenzie. Cain, McKenzie, Stanton and Montel Williams host Ocean Emergency: Currents of Hope, an environmental documentary, that’s on December 27. 

On December 29, Popstar’s Best of 2022, hosted by Stanton, is on. 

iHeartRadio Music Festival airs December 30 and 31. 

Nexstar acquired The CW earlier this month. ■

With people more comfortable going into stores, television advertising for many major retailers was way up during the holiday season.

According to an analysis by Samba TV, Walmart, the top advertiser in the fourth quarter, increased its number of TV impressions by 20% from a year ago. 

Target’s impressions were 35%, Kohl’s grew 25% and Macy’s were up 34%, according to Samba TV.

Traditional retailers represented four of the top 10 advertisers during the fourth quarter. In addition to Walmart in the top slot, Target was No. 6, Kohl’s was No. 7 and Macy’s was eighth. 

Also: Ho Ho Ho! Holiday Programming Paid Off for Hallmark, NBC, Freeform

Walmart, Target and Macy’s did not rank in the top 10 during the third quarter.

Also breaking into the top five was Amazon. Amazon did not rank in the top five in the fourth quarter of 2020 despite the high volume of online shopping during the first COVID christmas, Samba TV noted. 

Some retailers focused on the Hispanic market. Target generated the most impressions advertising on Telemundo, followed by Univision. For Walmart, Univision and UniMás were the No. 2 and No. 3 networks in terms of impressions.

Looking just at the peak holiday season, between Black Friday and Christmas, retailers pulled out the stops when it came to TV advertising, Walmart, Target, Kohl’s and Macy’s all served more than 1.5 billion impressions, as did Amazon. 

Samba TV said Kohl’s did the best job in achieving reach while limiting frequency. The average household exposed to Kohl’s ad during the holidays saw 22 of them. Households that saw ads for Walmart saw 42 of them and households that saw Target ads saw 32 of them. Those retailers were more likely to reach oversaturation and annoy potential shoppers, Samba TV said.

“With the viewership landscape more fractured than it’s ever been, it’s never been more imperative for marketers to utilize a holistic view across both linear and streaming,” Samba TV VP of measurement Cole Strain said. “By leveraging Samba TV’s independent, first-party data set culled from 40-plus million devices marketers can truly understand their audience reach and true ROI.” ■

Santa Claus was very good to Hallmark Channel, NBC, Freeform and others who aired holiday programming during the Christmas season.

While linear television overall found coal in its stocking — except for football, of course — ad revenues for holiday programming rose 2% to $531 million, according to an analysis by Standard Media Index. Revenues were up 3% compared to 2019.

More networks jumped into Christmas-movie mode — notably GAC Family, run by former Hallmark Channel head Bill Abbott — putting visions of sugar plums in the eyes and wallets of media buyers.

“Holiday programming remains a touchpoint that advertisers want to be a part of,” SMI advertising insights director Nicole McCurnin said. “During the 2020 holiday season, folks were even more cooped up than they were this past year. Running in these nostalgic type programs does build goodwill for brands.”

Also: Retailers Were Big Advertisers Over Holiday Season: Samba TV

McCurnin noted that overall, the fourth quarter is an important time of year for ad spending, but total linear ad spending was down 3% in December. “You can obviously say that the holiday-specific programming outperformed,” she said.

SMI’s data covers linear national advertising. While ad-supported streaming services also ran a significant amount of holiday programming, SMI gets its spending data from ad agency traffic computers and ad buyers do not get complete information about the shows from streaming and digital video outlets where specific ads appear. So, good data on streaming ad revenue isn’t available.

Crown Media’s Hallmark Channel, which has been pursuing a holiday-oriented programming strategy for years, was tops in generating ad revenue from Christmas movies and other holiday programming.

Hallmark Channel holiday programming revenue was $147.8 million for November and December, up by 1% to a three-year peak. It has a 28% share of holiday programming revenue, even with last year. Top titles were Next Stop, Christmas, which brought in $4.4 million in ad spending; and Open by Christmas and A Christmas Treasure, each garnering $3.2 million.

Hallmark also generates incremental revenue with its “Christmas in July” stunt, McCurnin noted. That’s something other networks don’t and probably couldn’t pull it off. “Hallmark is really tapping into that brand equity and owning the holiday year-round,” she said.

Crown Media’s Hallmark Movies & Mysteries had the fifth-most ad revenue from holiday programming with $48.9 million, up 11%.

Viewers Loved a Parade

NBC had the biggest single holiday telecast with its broadcast of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which raked in $54 million. Thirty-second commercials during the parade sold for an average of $540,000, up from $475,000 in 2020.

Overall, NBC generated $89.4 million in holiday programming ad revenue, up 19% from 2020. Its annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center special drew $11 million and the holiday staple It’s a Wonderful Life brought in $4.7 million.

The Walt Disney Co’.s Freeform was third with $76.9 million in revenue in holiday programming, up 4%.

Freeform runs its annual “25 Days of Christmas” stunt, but not every program that appeared as part of 25 Days was counted as holiday programming by SMI. SMI didn’t include Toy Story revenue in its calculations. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and Home Alone were Freeform’s top performers. (While many consider Die Hard a Christmas movie, SMI said it didn't appear on ad-supported linear TV in November or December.)

Among other networks generating significant revenue from holiday programming were Lifetime, with $55.6 million in ad revenues, down 19% from 2020; ABC, with $41.8 million, down 1%. AMC m with $31.4 million, down 32%, CBS (which reentered the original holiday movie fray with A Christmas Proposal) at $19.2 million, up 55% and TBS, home of the A Christmas Story marathon, with $14.2 million, up 84%.

Newcomer GAC Family generated $2.2 million in ad revenue from its holiday programming. Worth noting: GAC announced its holiday programming plans after the upfront, missing a lot of potential ad dollars. ■ 

American Marriage Ministries, a Seattle-based marriage equality and access group billing itself as supporting people of all races, genders and sexual orientations, is calling on Hallmark not to skip the vows in its holiday movies.

AMM is a nonprofit nondenominational church that provides online ordination--$95 for its Signature Wedding Officiant Package--claiming to have ordained over three-quarters of a million people.

Hallmark holiday movies are among the top-rated entertainment content on cable during the network's extended holiday season--from before Halloween until after Christmas.

Rather than cutting from the altar to the kiss, the group wants those shows to include "the minister’s blessing. The words of devotion. The awkward passing of the rings. The heartfelt written vows that make our adorable bride and bashful groom tear up, or those ‘for better, and for worse’ promises..."

Also: Twelve Days of Christmas Movies

"There’s plenty to love about Hallmark holiday movies, and they generate hours of enjoyment for viewers. But with so many couples looking to pop culture for inspiration, this represents a massive missed opportunity for Hallmark to show how two people can use ceremony to create symbolic significance," the group said. ■ 

Series Business is a new podcast from Broadcasting+Cable and Multichannel News, featuring candid conversations with executive producers about launching a new show or new season.

A Christmas Proposal star Adam Rodriguez and writer Mark Amato unwrap quirky CBS Christmas movie for B+C's Michael Malone.

Also: Holiday 2021 TV Premiere Dates

More Series Business: Valerie Armstrong on 'Kevin Can F**k Himself', a Dark Comedy From AMC | Samantha Strauss on 'The End', a Dark Family Comedy From Australia | Kevin O'Leary on 'Money Court', a CNBC Show That Sees 'Mr. Wonderful' Judge on Partners' Financial Disputes | Phil Weinstein on Keeping Mickey Fun and Fresh on Disney Junior's 'Mickey Mouse Funhouse' | Jeff Probst on Rethinking 'Survivor' During Its Long Pandemic Delay | 'CSI' Creator Anthony Zuiker on How 'CSI: Vegas' Came To Be | 'We're Here' Creators Johnnie Ingram and Stephen Warren on Doing Drag Shows in Small-Town America | 'Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now!' Writer/Director/Exec Producer Jonathan Stern on How Scooby Has Stayed Cool for So Long

In time for the holidays Vizio has launched a Winter Watchland on its WatchFree Plus streaming service.

The flurry of seasonal movies and TV shows is sponsored by Microsoft. Users will also find discount offers on TVs and sound bars bought as gifts or to upgrade the home viewing experience.

Vizio joins the streaming platforms with free, ad supported programming getting in on the seasonal spirit.

Also: Vizio Adds Streaming VOD to WatchFree Plus Service

“This holiday season, we are pleased to offer our Vizio SmartCast audiences the ultimate holiday destination with hundreds of hours of free holiday movies, TV shows, music, and Vizio exclusives,” said Steve DeMain, VP of Engagement for Vizio.

Special channels available as part of the Winter Watchland include a Vizio Holiday Movie Collection on channel 200, Fork & Flight Holiday cooking shows on channel 400 and the Vizio Fireplace--the company’s version of the Yule log--on channel 502.

The holiday movies include exclusives Christmas on 5th Avenue from BrainPower Studio and Four Cousins and a Christmas from MarVista Entertainment. ■

From reindeer to fruitcake, networks and streamers are getting festive with holiday 2021 programming.

Broadcast sees the return of holiday favorites, such as CBS's presentation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and ABC's seasonal series The Great Christmas Light Fight.

Recently rebranded GAC Family will bring multiple merry movies to cable, including Royally Wrapped for Christmas and Joy for Christmas. VH1 also gets into the holiday spirit.

Check out the listings below.

November

Monday, Nov. 22

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (CBS)

Wednesday, Nov. 24

General Hospital (ABC, holiday episode)

Hawkeye (Disney Plus, series premiere)

A Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving (NBC)

Thursday, Nov. 25

The 95th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC, 9 a.m.)

National Dog Show Presented By Purina (NBC, 12 p.m.)

The Magic Maker (ABC, holiday special)

The Nine Kittens of Christmas (Hallmark Channel, 8 p.m.)

Friday, Nov. 26

Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (ABC)

My Angel’s Christmas List (GAC Family)

Masters of Illusion: Christmas Magic 2021 (The CW)

Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer (The CW)

Frosty the Snowman (CBS)

Frosty Returns (CBS)

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (NBC)

The Grinch (NBC)

5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas (NBC)

Trolls Holiday in Harmony (NBC)

Christmas CEO (Hallmark Channel, 6 p.m.)

An Unexpected Christmas (Hallmark Channel, 8 p.m.)

Saturday, Nov. 27

Royally Wrapped for Christmas (GAC Family)

Wellington Paranormal (The CW, holiday episode)

Robbie the Reindeer: Hooves of Fire (CBS)

Robbie the Reindeer: Legends of the Lost Tribe (CBS)

Western Christmas (MeTV)

Making Spirits Bright (Hallmark Channel, 6 p.m.)

Christmas at Castle Hart (Hallmark Channel, 8 p.m.)

Sunday, Nov. 28

The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration (ABC, holiday special)

The Great Christmas Light Fight (ABC, season premiere)

Christmas Is You (GAC Family)

The Waltons’ Homecoming (The CW)

A Very Brady Christmas (MeTV)

Christmas in Tahoe (Hallmark Channel, 6 p.m.)

The Christmas Contest (Hallmark Channel, 8 p.m.)

Monday, Nov. 29

Adventures in Christmas-ing (VH1)

CMA Country Christmas (ABC)

December

Wednesday, Dec. 1

Home Economics (ABC, holiday episode)

The Wonder Years (ABC, holiday episode)

Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas (The Roku Channel, holiday special)

Beebo Saves Christmas (The CW, holiday special)

World’s Funniest Animals: Christmas (The CW)

Kelly Clarkson Presents When Christmas Comes Around (NBC, holiday special)

Fruitcake Fraud (Discovery Plus)

Thursday, Dec. 2

The Bitch Who Stole Christmas (VH1)

Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (ABC)

Toy Story That Time Forgot (ABC)

Friday, Dec. 3

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines (Discovery Plus)

Saturday, Dec. 4

Jingle Bell Princess (GAC Family)

Silent Night--A Song for the World (The CW, documentary)

Sunday, Dec. 5

S.W.A.T. (CBS, 8 p.m., series returns)

Something’s Coming: West Side Story -- A Special Edition of 20/20 (ABC)

A Lot Like Christmas (GAC Family)

Monday, Dec. 6

Hip Hop Family Christmas (VH1)

A Very Boy Band Holiday (ABC)

MeTV’s Super Colossal Cartoon Christmas (MeTV, 8 p.m.)

Wednesday, Dec. 8

Christmas Around the World (The CW)

Friday, Dec. 10

Shark Tank (ABC, holiday episode)

Penn & Teller: Merry Fool Us (The CW, holiday special)

Saturday, Dec. 11

A Christmas Miracle for Daisy (GAC Family)

The Pioneer Woman’s Hometown: Holiday Themes (Discovery Plus)

Sunday, Dec. 12

America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, holiday episode)

Supermarket Sweep (ABC, holiday episode)

A Christmas Star (GAC Family)

Greatest Holiday Commercials Countdown 2021 (The CW, holiday special)

A Christmas Proposal (CBS)

A Chef's Life Holiday Special (PBS, 8 p.m.)

Monday, Dec. 13

Let’s Get Married (VH1)

20 Years Of Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir (PBS, 8 p.m.)

Tuesday, Dec. 14

The Nutcracker and The Mouse King (PBS, 9 p.m.)

Wednesday, Dec. 15

IHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2021 (The CW)

Nature “Santa’s Wild Home” (PBS, 8 p.m.)

Thursday, Dec. 16

Dogs of the Year 2021 (The CW)

Friday, Dec .17

The 89th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade (The CW)

Sunday, Dec. 19

The Sound of Music (ABC)

Joy for Christmas (GAC Family)

Christmas Takes Flight (CBS)

Lucy Worsley’s 12 Days of Tudor Christmas (PBS, 8 p.m.)

Monday, Dec. 20

Miracles Across 125th Street (VH1)

Christmas at Belmont (PBS, 9 p.m.)

Friday, Dec. 24

Shrek the Halls (ABC)

Disney Prep & Landing (ABC) 

Disney Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs. Nice (ABC)

20 Years Of Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir (PBS, 9 p.m., encore presentation)

Saturday, Dec. 25

Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Parade (ABC)

Call the Midwife (PBS, 9 p.m.)

Sunday, Dec. 26

Call the Midwife (PBS, 7:30 p.m., 2019 holiday special)

Tuesday, Dec. 28

Popstar’s Best of 2021 (The CW)

Wednesday, Dec. 29

The Book of Boba Fett (Disney Plus)

Friday, Dec. 31

Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2022 (ABC)

United in Song: Celebrating the American Dream (PBS, 9 p.m.)

'Tis the season for music video service Vevo, which has launched Christmas-themed channels on platforms in the U.S. and U.K.

The Vevo Holiday channel is available on Local Now, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus and Xumo.

In the U.K., people can stream the Vevo Christmas channel--the company’s first in England--on Samsung TV Plus.

The channels feature a mix of holiday tunes, from traditional music like Silent Night, to family classics like Winter Wonderland, to more recent hits such as Mistletoe and Santa Tell Me.

Also: Vevo Campaign for Credit Karma Wins Advanced Advertising Innovation Award

Viewership of Vevo on CTV is highest over the holidays as families and friends gather. New Year’s Eve 2020 was the most viewed day of last year for Vevo CTV. (It was also the top day in the company’s history). Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were the days with the second and third most viewing.

“During this time of the year, consumers are actively seeking out and watching holiday music videos, such as Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You or Wham!’s Last Christmas," said JP Evangelista, senior VP, content, programming and marketing, Vevo. “Music is undoubtedly an integral part of celebrating the holidays and spreading cheer, and given the particular popularity of these types of music videos right now, Vevo is providing consumers with a destination for getting into the spirit of the season through their TVs and tune-in options for the whole festive period.”

Also: Vevo Launches Somos Vevo Ads To Reach Hispanics Via CTV

Vevo’s holiday season also attracts advertisers. This year a long list of companies have signed up including Best Buy, Verizon, Capital One, Nintendo, Chanel, Chuck E Cheese, New York State Office of Mental Health, MGA, Marshalls, Guitar Center, Amazon, Old Navy, Pennsylvania Lotto, NYSDOH Flu/COVID vax, Tracfone, Clorox, Paco Rabanne and Bacardi.

Brands can tap into holiday programming on Vevo across CTV, mobile and desktop in a number of ways. Vevo offers  “brought to you by” sponsorships, linear TV block ownership, and daytime ownership. Advertisers can choose programming themes including “Home for the Holidays”, “Holiday Party”, “Top Holiday Hits”, “Best of 2021”, and “New Year’s Eve Party.” 

“From nostalgia to joy, holiday music taps into our emotions and memories unlike any other types of music. Vevo’s holiday channels uniquely allow advertisers to leverage these feelings and to align their campaigns with powerful holiday content, during the biggest sales period of the year,” added Rob Christensen, VP, advanced television at Vevo. “We are excited to launch our new holiday channels, and we anticipate even higher viewership this year, meaning greater reach for advertisers on Vevo.”

Vevo said views of holiday videos spike every December across all platforms. In 2020 December views were up 4,500 in the U.S., compared to the average for January through October.

Mariah Carey’s inevitable All I Want for Christmas Is You drew 18 million platform viewers in the U.S. and 7 million in the U.K.. last December.■

Below is a snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Nov. 8-14, showcasing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and network and show TV ad impressions insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks

Via Inscape, Vizio’s TV data product with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 17 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Once again, the National Football League is the most-watched programming on TV, with 5.87% of minutes watched during the week of Nov. 8-14 (up slightly from last week’s 5.82%). NFL RedZone also puts points on the board, with 0.37% of minutes watched, which is 22nd among all programming for the week.

Some additional insights about the top programming on TV:

• College football remains in second by minutes watched, with 3.73% on the week, while college basketball’s return scores 0.52% of watch time (10th overall).
• ABC’s airing of the 55th Annual CMA Awards is No. 15, with 0.42% of minutes watched.
• NCIS: New Orleans jumps from No. 49 to No. 21 week-over-week, and fellow procedural Blue Bloods also returns to the top 25, moving up from No. 26 to No. 24.
• ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is new to this week’s ranking as well, climbing from No. 28 to No. 25.

Also: Fall 2021 TV Premiere Dates

CBS hurdles up to No. 1 with a big assist from an NFL doubleheader on Sunday, and Alabama football on Saturday. The network secured 8.41% of minutes watched on the week, up from 6.75% the week prior.

More insights around the most-watched networks during the week:

• The big four broadcast networks reshuffle at the top of our rankings, with CBS jumping to No. 1, ABC moving up from No. 4 to No. 3, and Fox moving from No. 1 to No. 4 week-over-week.
• TBS darts up from No. 21 to No. 17 thanks to its fleet of syndicated sitcoms including Friends, The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon.
• Discovery is the lone week-over-week newcomer to our ranking, moving up from No. 26 to No. 24 by minutes watched.
• While neither Hallmark nor Hallmark Movies & Mysteries change places in the ranking, both increased watch-time on the week — with Hallmark leaping from 2.95% to 3.15%, and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries increasing from 1.29% to 1.30%, all on the back of holiday-themed programming.

Also: Fox Is Selling 2023 Super Bowl Spots as Sports Ad Market Heats Up

Hallmark’s continued growth by share of watch-time is an obvious boon for the network as it has staked out a corner of the holiday season that is all its own. Compared to this time last year, Hallmark is earning a greater share of minutes watched, and advertisers have taken notice as well.

Data from iSpot, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company, shows advertisers are already all-in on both Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries to try and catch holiday audiences in a shopping mood.

Since Nov. 1, retailers have swarmed both cable channels with holiday ads. Retail brands made up nearly 20% of all TV ad impressions across both networks, compared to about 17% for the same time period in 2020. For some advertisers, Hallmark programming is a key part of their TV ad strategy this holiday season. Christmas tree brand Balsam Hill, for example, has nearly 50% of its November TV ad impressions so far (and 56% of its 2021 impressions to date) coming from Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Below is a list of the Hallmark and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries programming generating the most impressions since Nov. 1:

1. Gingerbread Miracle (721 million TV ad impressions)

2. Next Stop, Christmas (621 million)

3. My Christmas Family Tree (545 million)

4. Open By Christmas (504 million)

5. Christmas Sail (478 million)

All of those are new holiday movies for 2021, with more new titles slated for the rest of November and into December.

NBC has shared its holiday programming events, which includes A Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving on Nov. 24, How the Grinch Stole Christmas on Nov. 26 and Kelly Clarkson Presents When Christmas Comes Around on Dec. 1. 

The two-hour Saturday Night Live Thanksgiving special features memorable Turkey Day sketches from the show’s 47 seasons. 

The 95th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is on Nov. 25 starting at 9 a.m. ET/PT, leading into the National Dog Show Presented By Purina at 12 p.m. John O’Hurley hosts. 

The Grinch features the voice of Boris Karloff. Also on Nov. 26 is the Jimmy Fallon animated special 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas as well as Trolls Holiday in Harmony.

The 89th Annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center special and Kelly Clarkson Presents When Christmas Comes Around are on Dec. 1. Clarkson is a coach on The Voice and a daytime host. 

Annie Live! airs Dec. 2 and It’s a Wonderful Life is on Dec. 4. Michael Buble’s Christmas in the City is slotted for Dec. 6. 

A Very Chrisley Christmas is on Dec. 15 and L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth airs Dec. 16. 

Musical comedy movie Sing, with Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon and Seth MacFarlane, is on Dec. 17.   

Illumination Presents: Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch airs Dec. 22 and NBC has Christmas Eve Mass, featuring Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Dec. 24. 

“NBC has long been the definitive destination for new and classic holiday programming, and this season features our most dynamic and expansive lineup to date,” said Jen Neal, executive VP, entertainment live events, specials and E! News, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “From family favorites like Christmas in Rockefeller Center to the highly anticipated Annie Live!, this will surely be a holiday to remember starting with Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.” 

After Christmas, The Rose Parade’s New Year Celebration Presented By Honda is on Jan. 1. 

Crown Media Family Networks is once again spreading holiday tidings — and strong ratings cheer — with its annual lineup of holiday movies. Crown Media‘s Hallmark Channel, which launched its schedule of 30 new original holiday movie premieres in October, finished the month as the most watched cable network among female viewers and as a top five-rated cable network in primetime, bolstered by its original holiday movies. 

Leading the network’s programming charge is recently named Crown Media Family Networks executive VP of programming Lisa Hamilton Daly, who is overseeing original programming for Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and streaming service Hallmark Movies Now. 

Daly, a former Netflix and Lifetime programming executive, recently spoke to Multichannel News to discuss her programming vision for the Crown Media services. She also opines on the competition within the holiday programming genre as well as on potential future programming offerings from the network. An edited version of the interview appears below. 

Picture This: Did you have to  go through a major transition moving from the streaming and studio production side to focusing on family-targeted programming for cable networks? 

Lisa Hamilton Daly: I had worked at Netflix and I also worked at Lifetime … I wasn’t exactly working on super family programming, but it was female-focused programming, which is very much in the Hallmark genre. The only thing different that you have to be aware of is creating content that pauses for ads. I’m really working in the same world of female-focused, very emotion-driven content, so it's not a big stretch.

PT: How would you define the Hallmark brand with regards to its original programming offerings?

LHD: I think that Hallmark is invested in high-quality, emotionally-driven programming. That's why I really like it, as well as people who are looking for positivity and a bit of an escape from everyday life. I think it's very female-focused for the most part — I know there are a lot of male fans — but it‘s a world where women can come in and see their happy ending and have a little bit of an escape and aspirational fun. I think that‘s something that is really important … there are not a lot of outlets for that in the marketplace. That’s what I think makes Hallmark so unique.

PT: Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas offering has drawn numerous competitors over the years, so how does the network continue to differentiate itself from others in the marketplace? 

LHD: That’s a really interesting question. I think that a lot of people who are watching holiday movies on other channels think they’re watching Hallmark movies. Hallmark is so identified with Christmas that they dominate the brand of holiday. I think people try things to tinker with the formula, but Hallmark stays within the formula and we find so many fresh ways to express it. We’ve also expanded our brand experience to include so many other things including food, wine, games and music that live that Hallmark lifestyle. We have Hallmark [Club Wyndham] hotel suites this year — I have a friend who told me she’s already booked one in Tennessee. People just want to go live that entire Hallmark life and feel like they‘re walking into one of those movies. I think more than any of our competitors, who by the way do wonderful work themselves, Hallmark really owns the brand in a way that other people want to, but just don’t yet.

PT: Having said that, are you concerned that there may be too much holiday-themed content in the marketplace?

LHD: It’s certainly something to think about, but I think as long as we still feel like we’re telling fun, fresh stories, we’ll continue to be successful. We’re looking to tell stories just beyond romantic love stories, so there are a lot of areas to mine to freshen up the holiday content.

PT: Hallmark is perennially a top 10-rated cable network in primetime throughout the year. What keeps the network so popular with viewers beyond its signature holiday movie fare?

LHD: Hallmark has a really unique brand proposition. I think people know what they’re going to get when they turn to the channel. They know that they’re going to find a world where there's a bit of an order, and things work out for people. I think in a world of chaos and uncertainty, that sense of beauty and order that exists in a Hallmark movie really feels good to them. People fall in love, families come together and when those things happen it really feels good to people.

PT: What should we look for in terms of new programming from Hallmark?

LHD: I just got here, but we’ve identified a couple of things that we want to do. I think we're looking for some ways to spice up Christmas — maybe some different formats. I don‘t want to say too much yet, but I think we‘re flirting with some ideas to just mix it up a little. We‘re looking to find some fresh content, maybe in the series world. We have seasonal stunts year round, and we‘re starting to map out all of those as well. We're definitely firing on all cylinders right now.

PT: How many original scripted series will Hallmark look to offer in 2022?

LHD: I think we have about three series a year roughly. Good Witch just finished, so we'll be looking for a series to replace it. We have a couple other series that are ongoing. We also may be making some series for our SVOD streaming service, Hallmark Movies Now, which should be really fun.

PT: Are there any other genres that you’d like to explore?

LHD: I think unscripted would be a really interesting place to explore. We haven‘t made any decisions around that yet, but I think it‘d be a great brand extension. I love thinking about what Hallmark could look like as a lifestyle brand. I think we‘re also thinking about what comedy would look like on Hallmark. I think we‘re really open and thinking forward about what could really help engage our audiences further.

PT: From your perspective, what does Hallmark Channel’s programming strategy look like in 2022?

LHD: My desire is to tell a really wide range of stories inside the Hallmark brand. I think that Hallmark is for everybody, and I really want to be sure that we're telling everyone's stories and really bringing them into the family

PT: Does that include a more diverse lineup of content?

LHD: Yes. My biggest goal is to be more inclusive and to really explore what that means for so many different kinds of people.

PT: Where does streaming fit into Hallmark’s overall content distribution strategy?

LHD: I think that we‘re certainly looking around at the success of streaming and thinking about what that could look like for us and thinking about shows that could be on there. We have a robust library of our content already, so we’re thinking of how to put more of our series on there so people can catch up, or to have our Christmas stuff available year round, and overall thinking about what would be fun to be on there that‘s new. I certainly think about that all the time: Is it more rom-coms? Is it more series? I think it can only get better.

VH1 is getting into the holiday sprit with holiday films from big-name directors that will put a unique spin on Christmas under a “Naughty or Nice” banner.

The ViacomCBS cable channel has movies coming executive produced by Eva Longoria, Jamie Foxx, Nick Cannon, Randy Barbato and Fento Bailey, and Kim Fields.

Titles like The Bitch Who Stole Christmas and Hip Hop Family Christmas deliver the message that this miracle is taking place north of 34th Street.

“With our ‘Naughty or Nice’ film slate, VH1 is reimagining the holidays with modern, fresh takes,” said Nina L. Diaz, CCO and president of content for MTV Entertainment Group. “Working together with Eva, Jamie, Kim, Nick as well as our long-standing partners Randy and Fenton has truly been a gift that keeps on giving.”

The films will start appearing on Nov. 29, starting with Adventures in Christmas-ing, from MTV Entertainment Studios, Johnson Production Group and K-Lab Studios, executive produced by Kim Fields, Art Rutter and Timothy Johnson; Meghan Hooper, Josh Van Houdt and Janee Dabney. It’s about a talk show host who winds up stranded for the holiday when her network persuades her to spend three days in the wild with a television survivalist. Fields stars with Adrian Holmes, Kel Mitchell, Eva Marcille and Jonathan Silverman.

The Bitch Who Stole Christmas premieres Dec. 2 from MTV Entertainment Studios and World of Wonder, executive produced by Randy Barbato, Fenton Bailey, Tom Campbell, Don Scardino; Nina L. Diaz, Meghan Hooper, Josh Van Houdt, Samantha Schles, Marcia Lansdown and Janee Dabney. Starring RuPaul, the film is about a fashion journalist sent to a small town where she finds herself in the middle of a cut-throat Winter Ball Competition. Also starring are Krysta Rodriguez, Andy Ridings, Michelle Visage, Ginger Minj, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Peppermint, Jan Sport, Jaymes Mansfield, Latrice Royale, Gottmik, Morgan McMichaels, Porkchop, Carson Kressley, Ross Mathews, Chad Michaels, Heidi N Closet, Kelly Mantle, Kimora Blac, Laganja Estranja, Manila Luzon, Mayhem Miller, Pandora Boxx, Raven, Rock M. Sakura, Kylie Sonique Love, Kim Petras, Charo and Anna Maria Horsford.

"There are 1000 Christmas movies this year, but only one with Drag Queens! Christmas will never be the same,” said Barbato.

Hip Hop Family Christmas gets unwrapped Dec. 6 from MTV Entertainment Studios, Foxxhole and, Nexus Films, with Jamie Foxx, Datari Turner, Greg Carter; Meghan Hooper, Josh Van Houdt, Mychael Chinn, Trevor Rose and Janee Dabney executive producing. It features hip hop’s most famous family participating in a live Christmas television special. It stars Keri Hilson, Ne-Yo, Terrence J, Serayah, MC Lyte, Redman, Valarie Pettiford, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Demetrius Shipp Jr, Billy Sorrells, Jonathan Kite, B. Simone, Jess Hilarious, Niatia ‘Lil Mama’ Kirkland, Vena E., Vanessa Simmons and Tank.

Let’s Get Married premieres Dec. 13 from MTV Entertainment Studios, UnbeliEVAble Ent and Blue Ice Pictures, with Eva Longoria, Adriana Martinez Barron and Ben Spector; Lance Samuels, Meghan Hooper, Josh Van Houdt, Andrew Lutin, Trevor Rose and Marcia Lansdown executive producing. The film is set during bachelorette weekend at a Christmas-themed adventure park. It stars Mishel Prada, Xosha Roquemore, Tahj Mowry, Nicolette Pearse, Nicole Power and Savannah Basley,

Miracles Across 125th Street arrives Dec. 20 from MTV Entertainment Studios, Ncredible Entertainment and Capital Arts, executive produced by Nick Cannon, Michael Goldman; Benjamin Sumpter, Mike Elliott, Joe Genier; Nina L. Diaz, Donny Hugo Herran, Dara Cook, Trevor Rose and Janee Dabney. The movie is about a Harlem rapper who, after battling drug addiction, returns to his family’s church to confront his past on Christmas Eve. Nick Cannon, Lil Kim, Chrisette Michele, Kierra Sheard-Kelly, Tommy Davidson, Bruce Church aka “Bruce Bruce,” Luenell Campbell aka “Luenell,” Fred Hammond, Karen Clark Sheard, Akon, Cameron J. Wright, Vena "Pretty Vee" Excell, Marsha Warfield, Ashley Adair, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Santwon McCray, Airean Josiah aka AJ Boogie, Jarun Jones aka YM, Connor Finnerty and Golden Cannon star.

“I’m excited to bring all the uplifting elements of gospel, hip-hop and comedy together with such an inspiring and talented cast,” said Cannon.

GAC Family, one of the new family friendly cable networks run by former Hallmark Channel head Bill Abbott, announced three more Christmas-themed movies, completing its slate of 12 original films that will run this holiday season.

With the last three films — My Angel’s Christmas List, with Chad Michael Murray and Jessica Lowndes;  A Lot Like Christmas, starring Maggie Lawson and Christopher Russell; and Joy For Christmas, with Cindy Busby and Sam Page — GAC Family will be airing original movies starting Oct. 30 as part of what it’s billing as its “12 Movies of Christmas” celebration. 

Also Read: Bill Abbott’s GAC Family, GAC Living Find a Family-Friendly Home on Frndly TV for the Holidays

Since acquiring Great American Country and Ride TV, Abbott and his company GAC Media have been following the wholesome Hallmark Channel playbook, turning Great American Country into GAC Family and Ride TV into GAC Living.

GAC Family is leaning heavily into the holiday — a strategy that‘s been successful for Hallmark — with Great American Christmas holiday-themed programming and by bringing back some familiar Hallmark faces.

The movie slate was heralded in a special on Saturday and running again Oct. 24 hosted by Cameron Mathison and Debbie Matenopoulos, who, not coincidentally, hosted Hallmark Channel’s daytime show Home & Family when Abbott ran the network. 

The new network also made a splash announcing that it will have season two of When Hope Calls. Season one of the series appeared on Hallmark Channel. GAC also announced that Hallmark Channel favorite Lori Loughlin — now notorious because of the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal — will be a guest star in When Hope Calls, playing her character from Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart.

Here is the full slate of GAC Family holiday movies:

Saturday, October 30: Much Ado About Christmas 

Saturday, November 6: The Great Christmas Switch

Saturday, November 13: Christmas Time Is Here 

Saturday, November 20:  A Kindhearted Christmas 

Friday, November 26: My Angel’s Christmas List

Saturday, November 27: Royally Wrapped for Christmas 

Sunday, November 28:  Christmas Is You 

Saturday, December 4:  Jingle Bell Princess 

Sunday, December 5: A Lot Like Christmas

Saturday, December 11: A Christmas Miracle for Daisy

Sunday, December 12: A Christmas Star

Sunday, December 19: Joy for Christmas

The CW has shared its holiday programming plans, with the Halloween special Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now! kicking things off Friday, Oct. 29. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo investigate a mystery while celebrating the legacy of the franchise during this one-hour special. Janel Parrish hosts and guests include Iain Armitage, Seth Green and Weird Al Yankovic. 

World’s Funniest Animals: Halloween is on Oct. 30, with Elizabeth Stanton hosting. 

Masters of Illusion: Christmas Magic 2021 is on Nov. 26. Dean Cain hosts the magic special. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer is on the same night. 

Wellington Paranormal offers a holiday episode called “Twas the Patrol Before Christmas” Nov. 27. 

Movie The Waltons’ Homecoming is on Sunday, Nov. 28. Set in 1933, the story is told through the eyes of John Boy (Logan Shroyer), the 17-year-old eldest child of John (Ben Lawson) and Olivia Walton (Bellamy Young). His mother expects John Boy to help her raise his sisters and brothers, and his father expects him to follow in his footsteps to help support the family. Secretly, John Boy wants to be a writer. 

Special Beebo Saves Christmas is on Dec. 1. Ben Diskin voices Beebo, Chris Kattan handles Sprinkles and Ernie Hudson portrays Santa. World’s Funniest Animals: Christmas is on the same night. 

Documentary Silent Night--A Song for the World runs Dec. 4. Hugh Bonneville hosts and Kelly Clarkson, Joss Stone, Randy Jackson, Gavin Rossdale and Josh Groban are among the stars talking about the Christmas song. 

Christmas Around the World airs Dec. 8. Dean Cain and Laura McKenzie host.

Penn & Teller: Merry Fool Us is on Dec. 10. Alyson Hannigan hosts and Penn & Teller star.  

Greatest Holiday Commercials Countdown 2021 airs Dec. 12. Kevin Frazier and Nischelle Turner host. 

IHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2021 is on Dec. 15 and Dogs of the Year 2021 is on Dec. 16. Kevin Frazier and Keltie Knight host the latter. 

The 89th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade is on The CW Dec. 17. Hosts include Erik Estrada, Laura McKenzie, Dean Cain and Montel Williams. 

Popstar’s Best of 2021 is on Dec. 28. Elizabeth Stanton hosts the year’s greatest hits special.

GAC Family, the network being launched by former Hallmark Channel head Bill Abbott, said it added three new holiday movies to its new Great American Christmas.

GAC Family is taking from the Hallmark playbook with family-friendly programming embracing the holidays.

The network, now known as Great American Country, will officially relaunch on Sept. 27. It will begin its Yule programming on Oct. 24, with a special, Welcome to Great American Christmas. The special is hosted by Debbie Matenopoulos and Cameron Mathison, who previously hosted Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family when Abbott ran the network.

The three new films are The Great Christmas Switch, Royally Wrapped for Christmas and Christmas is You.

Here is GAC Family’s schedule for its holiday movies and specials:

Oct. 24 — Welcome to Great American Christmas, with hosts Debbie Matenopoulos and Cameron Mathison

Oct. 30 — Much Ado About Christmas, starring Susie Abromeit and Torrance Coombs

Nov. 6 — The Great Christmas Switch, starring Sarah Lind and Dillon Casey

Nov. 13 — Christmas Time Is Here, starring Dewshane Williams, Rukiya Bernard and Tom Pickett

Nov. 20 — A Kindhearted Christmas, starring Cameron Mathison and Jennie Garth

Nov. 27 — Royally Wrapped for Christmas, starring Jen Lilley and Brendan Fehr

Nov. 28 — Christmas Is You, starring Becca Tobin and Matthew MacCaull

GAC Family will also be premiering An Autumn Romance starring Chad Michael Murray, Jessica Lowndes, Dennis Andres, Moni Ogunsuyi and Michael Brown, on Oct. 23.

Taking another page from the family-friendly Hallmark playbook, GAC Media CEO Bill Abbott, the former head of the Hallmark Channel, is launching a new holiday franchise--and launching it early.

A special, Welcome to Great American Christmas, hosted by Debbie Matenopoulos and Cameron Mathison, will premiere Oct. 24 on the GAC Family channel, which will officially launch Sept. 27. Matenopoulos and Mathison were hosts of Hallmark Channel's Home & Family daytime show when Abbott ran the network.

The special will preview upcoming GAC Family holiday movies and celebrity guests will stop by to share Christmas craft and recipe ideas.

Among the Great American Christmas holiday movies is A Kindhearted Christmas, starring Mathison and Jennie Garth, which will have its debut on Nov. 20. More movies and specials will be announced at a later date, the company said.

Led by Abbott and backed by Hicks Equity Partners, GAC Media acquired the Great American Country and Ride TV cable channels. Abbott said GAC Media would focus on the kind of family-friendly programming that draws viewers and advertisers to Crown Media Family Networks' Hallmark Channel.

Last month, Abbott announced that the cable channels were being renamed effective Sept. 27, with Great American Country becoming GAC Family and Ride TV becoming GAC Living and would serve as the company’s flagship channels.

GAC Family will operate under the tagline “Stories Well Told.” GAC Living’s motto will be “Life Well Lived.”

In GAC Family’s movie A Kindhearted Christmas, Garth owns a sightseeing company in a small town in New York State. During the holiday, she decides to adopt her late husband’s habit of making gestures that make people happy during the holidays. Watching TV, she learns about a high school’s fundraising effort and makes a big anonymous donation. Her town catches the giving sprint, and the TV station’s anchorman, played by Mathison, drops in to report on the Secret Santa, eventually finding Garth.

A Kindhearted Christmas comes from Motion Picture Corp. of America. Executive Producers are Brad Krevoy, Amanda Phillips, Eric Jarboe, Tara Cowell-Plain, Jimmy Townsend, Cara J. Russell, Susie Belzberg Krevoy, Michael Shepherd and Doran Chandler. Producer is Mick McKay. Supervising Producer is Jonathan Shore. Associate Producer is Rob Grant. Directed by Alyssa Leite-Rogers. Story by Jennifer Barrow. Original teleplay by Jennifer Barrow and Amyn Kaderali.

Welcome to Great American Christmas is directed by Leon Knoles.

HBO Max has greeenlit a second season of holiday dating series 12 Dates of Christmas.

The series follows singles as they go on 12 dates in hopes of finding a partner to bring home for the holidays, said the network. The eight episode first season debuted Nov. 26, and a reunion episode, 12 Dates of Christmas: Unwrapped, premiered Dec. 17. 

12 Dates of Christmas is produced by Objective Media Group America, an All3Media America company, with Jilly Pearce and Layla Smith serving as executive producers. 

Also read: Delivering The Holiday Gift of Unscripted Romance

“12 Dates is the escapist holiday treat we all need right now,” said Jennifer O’Connell, HBO Max executive vice president of non-fiction and live-action family in a statement. “In season one, we wanted to shake up the snow globe to combine everything we love about holiday romcoms with a clever dating show format and a wink at our audience. We look forward to doing more of the same in season two, with a continued emphasis on casting to represent diversity of experience!” 

Also read: Cover Story: Holiday Cheer 

Disney Advertising Sales said that M&M-maker Mars is sponsoring a series of seasonal short films called Bite Size Holiday.

The films were created by Disney’s 20th Digital Studio, working with emerging filmmakers. Two are being posted on ABC’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Two more are on the Facebook and Twitter pages for Freeform’s 25 Days of Christmas.

“We’re thrilled to partner with 20th Digital Studio again, this time to spread some holiday cheer through their first-ever Bite Size Holiday series, sponsored by M&M’s,” said,” said Ray Amati, media director for Mars Wrigley. “Mars Wrigley is committed to creating better moments and more smiles for consumers, and what better way to do that during the season than reaching people with holiday content that they can enjoy with their families.”

Also Read: Disney Consolidates TV Studios Under Burke

The project follows Mars sponsorship of Disney’s Bite Size Halloween, which featured spooky shorts created by young filmmakers..

“Following the success of Bite Size Halloween, Mars is returning to sponsor 20th Digital’s Bite Size Holiday to help families celebrate the season and bring on the holiday spirits,” said Danielle Calnon, VP, Entertainment Brand Solutions, Disney Advertising Sales. “Disney’s social properties have shown to be a great platform for brands to reach their audiences and authentically engage in timely conversations while also providing a stage for emerging creators to showcase their talent and tell their stories.” 

20th Digital said that if their films resonate with audiences, their work on this project could be further developed into long-form content, such as a TV series or feature films.

“I’m thrilled by our continuing partnership with Mars, which allows 20th Digital Studio to bring forward these charming holiday stories from talented rising filmmakers,” said David Worthen Brooks, executive VP of 20th Digital Studio. 

Science Fair Santa was directed by Christopher Leone, Come In was directed by Jan Livingston, Santa Won’t Leave was directed by Chris Modoono and Gil Zabarsky and Swapsies was directed by Kerry Collins.

In another over-the-top holiday celebration, Roku said it is launching Winter Streamland on The Roku Channel, which will feature music channels from iHeart Radio.

Winter Streamland will also feature unlocked premium movies and TV episodes from Showtime, Sundance Now, Acorn TV, UMC and Starz.

“We recognize people are at home, navigating through a very different kind of holiday season and we wanted to make it even easier for users to discover more of the content they want,” said Sweta Patel, VP, engagement growth marketing, Roku. “The Roku Channel is home to a wide variety of amazing content. We’re focused on providing our users with programming that meets their entertainment mood. With Winter Streamland, we’re delivering a one-stop destination for users to connect with the entertainment they love through a variety of experiences that are easily accessible from The Roku Channel.”

Related: Holiday Cheer

The Winter Streamland music channels are iHeartChristmas, iHeartChristmas Classic, iHeartChristmas Country, iHeartChristmas R&B and iHeartChristmas Rock. 

"We’re thrilled to be partnering with Roku to deliver such a unique video-focused holiday music experience for The Roku Channel,” said Jessica Jerrick, executive VP of digital distribution & platform partnerships for iHeartMedia. “We realize the holiday season will look different this year, and we hope that this free lineup of iHeartRadio’s popular holiday music stations will bring a little magic and cheer to the tens of millions of people who count on The Roku Channel for high-quality entertainment."

Roku viewers in December will be able to watch the complete first seasons of premium channel series including The Affair, The Bureau, City on a Hill, Inspector George Gently, A House Divided, The L Word Generation Q, Ray Donovan, The Restaurant, The Spanish Princess Part 1 and Work in Progress. 

Also available in December are episodes from shows on Acorn TV, A&E, Crime Central, BET Plus, Epix, Hallmark Movies Now, Kocowa, Lifetime Movie Club, Noggin, Pantay, Qello, Concerts by Stingray, Shudder, Stingray Karaoke, Topic, and Up Faith and Family.

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Nov. 23-29*, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks 

Via Vizio’s Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

Once again the NFL was on top, snagging 8.41% of all minutes watched, an increase from the previous week’s 6.99%. College football followed, while the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had a 1.03% share duration putting it in third place. Thanks to a marathon on HGTV, Home Town jumped into seventh place (0.70%) while multiple news programs slipped in the ranking compared to the previous week. Speaking of marathons, although it didn’t make the top 25 ranking for the full week, History ran a Band of Brothers marathon on Black Friday, and it was No. 3 for watch-time that day (college football and college basketball were first and second, respectively).

Thanks in part to football (both NFL and college), CBS jumped into first place with a 9.49% share duration, followed by NBC (7.96%) and Fox (6.60%). Hallmark moved into fifth place, thanks in part to airings of Christmas Waltz, while newcomers to the top 25 included AMC and Freeform. It was a quieter week for news networks: Both CNN and Fox News dropped compared to the previous week, although MSNBC remained steady at No. 9.

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

TV ad impressions during NFL games were once again on the rise, up to 10.2 billion, a 31.13% increase from the previous week. College football was the only other program to surpass 1 billion impressions (3.87 billion), while the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade generated 927.4 million impressions. Dancing with the Stars jumped into the top 25 ranking with 272.5 million impressions, a 14.91% increase from the previous week, as did 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way (257.1 million, a slight 3.64% week-over-week increase).

CBS took first place with 9.1 billion TV ad impressions, more than half of which came from NFL games. NFL was a top impressions-driver for the second and third place networks, NBC (5.6 billion) and Fox (4.6 billion), while college football helped deliver eyeballs to ABC. Hallmark marched up the chart to No. 10, thanks to its continued rollout of Christmas movies. Animal Planet was a new entrant to the ranking with 214.7 million impressions, 94.1 million of which came from just two programs: Tanked: Tanksgiving and Alaska: The Last Frontier: The Frozen Edge.

*Note: Due to a wide Amazon Web Services outage on Nov. 25, the data above may be incomplete.

Fox Nation has increased its holiday programming lineup, going beyond the movie Christmas in the Rockies, which premiered Nov. 26. 

Christmas on the Range follows a rancher as she battles neighbors plotting to take over her family’s property. A veterinarian arrives to help one of her cows give birth, and a romance blossoms. That is currently streaming on Fox Nation. 

Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas, the 1977 special starring Bing Crosby and his family, with guests Twiggy, David Bowie and others, turns up on Fox Nation Dec. 2. 

A History of the (Ugly) Christmas Sweater premieres Dec. 3. Abby Hornacek and Tom Shillue host the special, which looks at the 40-year history of unbecoming Christmas sweaters. 

Starting Dec. 6 is Fox Nation All American Christmas, offering music, trivia, advice and guests. Pete Hegseth hosts. 

Premiering Dec. 7 is A Craze Called Christmas. The three-part weekly series follows Christmas enthusiasts around the country as they prep for the big day. 

Movie Christmas on the Coast, about a cynical New York novelist who returns to her Southern hometown hoping to come up with book ideas and meets a handsome widower, debuts Dec. 8. 

Beyond the Light: The Hanukkah Story premieres on Fox Nation Dec. 10. Alveda King’s House starts Dec. 11. The True St. Nicholas debuts Dec. 14. 7 Days in the Holy Land is on Dec. 16. Christmas Together with Raymond Arroyo and The History of the Christmas Tree premiere Dec. 17. 

The Cost of Christmas premieres Dec. 18 and White House Christmas is on Dec. 21. Return of the Holy Land begins Dec. 22, as does Yes, There is a Santa Claus!

Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt have cameos in Christmas in the Rockies. 

Fox Nation costs $5.99 monthly and $64.99 yearly. 

This is a quick snapshot of TV by the numbers for the week of Nov. 16-22, revealing the most-watched shows and networks using glass-level data from Vizio’s Inscape, and the top shows and networks by TV ad impressions with insights via iSpot.tv.

Most-Watched Shows and Networks 

Via Vizio’s Inscape, the TV data company with insights from a panel of more than 16 million active and opted-in smart TVs. Data is linear, live TV only and includes all episode types (new and reruns). Rankings are by percent share duration (i.e., time spent watching).

NFL reclaimed first place for watch-time with 6.99% share duration, while college football came second (2.49%), followed by Good Morning America (0.86%). Notably, Paramount’s Yellowstone broke into the top 10 most-watched shows (0.58%), thanks to the network’s “Every Episode Feast” weekend marathon. Oxygen’s true-crime series Snapped (0.46%) made the ranking for the second week in a row, while the 2020 American Music Awards were No. 18 with 0.44% share duration.

On the network side of things, NBC took first place with 8.70% of the minutes watched, followed by Fox (7.87%) and ABC (6.70%). Thanks in part to Christmas movies, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Lifetime both rose up the ranking (Hallmark itself stayed steady), while Paramount Network, fueled by its Yellowstone weekend marathon, made an appearance at No. 22 (1.03%).

Top Shows and Networks by TV Ad Impressions

Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. 

Commercials during NFL games generated over 8 billion TV ad impressions, a 13.63% week-over-week increase. College football had a nearly identical week-over-week increase as NFL games (13.64%); its 3.2 billion impressions put it solidly in second place. One notable new addition to the ranking is the new season of CBS’ The Price Is Right, which racked up 535.2 million TV ad impressions to secure ninth place. It’s also worth pointing out that the holiday advertising season is officially in full force: At least one of the most-seen spots for many of the top programs were Black Friday or holiday-related.

Thanks to NFL games, broadcast networks led the ranking once again. Fox took first place this time with over 6.5 billion impressions, up from 5.7 billion the previous week. The bulk (4.4 billion) came from NFL games — but college football, The OT and The Masked Singer also delivered top impression-counts for the network. New entrants to the ranking include ESPNU, with its 316.1 million impressions propelled by college football, and USA Network (302.9 million), which generated impressions thanks to WWE and broadcasts of The Twilight Saga movie series.

Christmas is more than a month away, yet this year’s record crop of nearly 100 new, original holiday-themed films is already drawing big ratings from weary viewers looking for some holiday cheer amid the constant strain of weighty pandemic news, protests against social injustice and a contested presidential election. 

And as the 2020-21 television season’s new and returning scripted shows just now begin to hit network lineups, industry observers say this year’s crop of holiday movies help fill a void of original scripted fare. 

“In a year where we’re looking for any of the positives and traditions that are still possible, I think the holiday movies work in the favor of the networks scheduling them,” media analyst Bill Carroll said. “Everyone is looking for fantasy, and what better fantasy than the tradition of romance in the midst of the holiday season.”

Stay-at-Home Fare

Network executives said holiday films from networks such as Hallmark, Lifetime, OWN and UPtv — as well as streamers like Netflix and Hulu — are already comforting viewers with the promise of hope and optimism as reflected in holiday traditions emphasizing family and peace. Those sentiments echo loudly in a year where the country has suffered through the worst pandemic in 100 years, forcing a new dynamic of stay-at-home rules that have taken a toll on the country’s physical, mental and economic health. 

Add to that the contentious presidential election — results of the Nov. 3 vote are still being contested, further widening the gap in an already deeply divided nation — as well as the continued call for social justice in the wake of the May death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and executives say holiday-themed content couldn’t come at a more opportune time for viewers. 

“Holiday films have always reminded viewers that family, in whatever form, is the priority regardless of the circumstances,” Lifetime executive VP of movies, limited series and original movie acquisitions Tanya Lopez said. “Those goals feel like they were the same in the beginning, when we started producing this year’s movies, but now I do feel like they’ve been amplified by what we’ve experienced.”

As in prior years, holiday-themed programming began dotting cable-network lineups weeks before Halloween-themed content finished haunting viewers. Networks, led by Lifetime, UPtv and Hallmark — along with its sister service, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries — have already aired more than 35 original Christmas-themed film premieres since mid-October, and have seen strong rating numbers against a blizzard of breaking news and live sports-themed content. 

Hallmark Channel’s Nov. 14 original holiday-themed film Christmas in
Vienna drew an impressive 3 million viewers, topping all non-news and sports content for the night and securing the top spot as the most-watched ad-supported cable entertainment show thus far in the fourth quarter. Its time at the top of the charts was short-lived, however, as the next night A Timeless Christmas, another holiday film from Hallmark, drew 3.3 million watchers.

And Hallmark has been the top-rated entertainment network in the weekly primetime cable ratings since its first 2020 holiday film, Jingle Bell Bride, debuted on
Oct. 24, according to Nielsen.

“Countdown to Christmas” typically does well during the holidays, Crown Media Family Networks executive VP of programming and network publicity Michelle Vicary said, but this season’s offerings are pacing above last year’s in the ratings, as television viewers flock to comfort fare. 

“We are already seeing [ratings] increases over last year,” Vicary said, adding that production on most of its movies was completed despite a
three-month stoppage due to the pandemic. “With all the things that have happened this year, we knew that what we provide to people was going to be more important than ever with positivity, optimism and making people feel better about their communities and their world.”

UP tv has already posted a 17% year-to-year ratings increase for the first three of its five original holiday movies, according to network officials. Network founder and CEO Charley Humbard said the network’s overarching holiday theme of “Christmas Together” further reflects the sentiments that he says viewers are feeling going into the holiday season.

“A lot of people aren’t going to be together this year, so there will be a lot of Zoom greetings,” he said. “We wanted our campaign to reflect the country, the community and individuals to show how Americans can come together this Christmas, and how important that is for all of us.”

UP tv also reported a 30% increase in sponsors for its lineup of holiday-themed programming compared to last year, highlighting the growing appeal of seasonal fare to advertisers looking for content with strong viewer appeal. 

“Advertisers are always looking for all the positive opportunities, and certainly if the early ratings are a reflection of where viewers are, advertisers go where the audience is,” Carroll said.

Season’s Streaming

The increases come as more networks and streaming services are flooding the TV environment with feel-good holiday fare across platforms. Netflix is serving up several new films, including the Forest Whitaker-starrer Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Story, while Hulu rings in the holidays with The Happiest Season. Disney Plus is jingling the holiday bells with original programming including comedy
film Godmothered, starring Jillian Bell, while HBO Max is taking an unorthodox approach to holiday programing with a holiday-inspired dating series, 12 Dates of Christmas.

Other cable networks such as OWN, TV One and BET will slide into the holiday movie genre in 2020, bringing more diverse images and stories to cable’s holiday movie lineup. OWN president Tina Perry said that holiday programming resonates with its target audience of African-American women.  

“We’ve all been home during COVID and coping with the world that we’re in, and we want to bring happiness to our audiences’ lives,” Perry said. Along with its three original holiday movies, the network will also offer Our OWN Christmas, a Dec. 1 gospel music special that will feature such artists as Boyz II Men, Tasha Cobbs and The Clarke Sisters.

“We really expect our family movies to be a great way to bring our families together to celebrate this special time of year,” Perry added. 

Despite the growing ranks of holiday programming scheduled through the
rest of the year, Lifetime’s Lopez said she’s not concerned that an oversaturation of such fare will impact the ratings performance of the network’s more than 30 original holiday films. 

“It’s tough to predict what the audience will do but we are staying the course,” Lopez said. “I believe that this is what everyone is ordering now — good holiday comfort food.” 

Added Carroll: “Movies that are targeted to a specific segment of the audience have a certain appeal, and I think time and numbers will determine when you reach a saturation point. It wouldn’t appear that we’re there yet.” 

ABC has shared its holiday programming plans, which features Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Celebration on Christmas Day. 

Starting on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, ABC will have Olaf’s Frozen Adventure, Toy Story That Time Forgot and the new The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration. 

Nov. 27, it’s Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. 

Nov. 29 has Disney Prep & Landing and Disney Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs. Nice. 

Related: The CW Shares Holiday Programming Plans

Nov. 30 offers a new holiday themed General Hospital during the day and The Disney Holiday Singalong, then CMA Country Christmas, in prime. 

Dec. 2, it’s holiday-themed episodes of The Goldbergs and black-ish.  

Dec. 9 is the season premiere of The Great Christmas Light Fight. The season concludes Dec. 23. 

Dec. 18 has Shrek the Halls and Dec. 20 The Sound of Music. 

On Dec. 24 it’s Hugh Jackman movie The Greatest Showman and on Christmas, Disney Parks Magical Christmas Day Celebration is on at 10 a.m. ET/PT. Christmas Day Celebration promises “heartwarming stories and amazing celebrity performances.”

The CW has shared its holiday plans, which kicks off with special Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer Nov. 27. Based on the song, “this goofy and heartwarming adventure features young Jake Spankenheimer on the quest of a lifetime to track his missing Grandma down on Christmas Eve to prove that Santa Claus is indeed real,” said The CW. 

The Hollywood Christmas Parade Greatest Moments is on Dec. 4. Greatest Holiday Commercials Countdown 2020 is on Dec. 9. Kevin Frazier hosts. 

New special Silent Night--A Song for the World premieres Dec. 10. A musical film documentary about the Christmas song, it is narrated by Hugh Bonneville and features versions performed by Kelly Clarkson, Katharine McPhee, Randy Jackson, Gavin Rossdale, Josh Groban and the Vienna Boys Choir. 

The Christmas Caroler Challenge premieres Dec. 11. Dean Cain and Laura McKenzie host the three-episode competition series. 

Penn & Teller: Merry Fool Us happens Dec. 16. Dogs of the Year is on Dec. 17 and Masters of Illusion: Christmas Magic 2019 airs Dec. 20. Dean Cain hosts. 

Popstar’s Best of 2020 is on Dec. 29, hosted by Elizabeth Stanton, and Heroes on the Front Line is on Dec. 30. Dean Cain hosts that one as well, about “on-the-ground heroes who dared to make a difference in the midst of the unprecedented and unforeseen worldwide pandemic.”

Cable networks’ original holiday movies will deliver the gift of diversity, with many of this year’s offerings featuring actors of color in lead roles.

From OWN’s first-ever original movie, One Fine Christmas, to Lifetime’s A Sweet Christmas Romance to UP TV’s Snowbound for Christmas, these movies will aim for viewers who are underserved by the popular seasonal genre.

“There’s a formula to holiday films: You have a nice-looking couple, they end up falling in love, there’s a happy ending, fa la la la la,” Marc Berman, editor of TV industry website Programming Insider, said. “What’s always been missing from that formula are people of color — there has been an enormous lack of diverse holiday programming.”

As cable networks ramp up the number of original holiday films — nearly 90 will debut between the last week of October and the end of December — network executives said they’ve made a more concerted effort to diversify the characters and storylines.

RELATED: Hallmark Celebrates a Decade of Yule Countdowns

With African-Americans in particular watching more than 50 hours of live and time-shifted television per week during the first quarter, per Nielsen, holiday-themed scripted programs — which touch on traditions of family, food and gifts — will play well with diverse audiences, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production Brigitte McCray said.

“Black audiences are not monolithic and storytelling for this audience should be as diverse as they are, including holiday programming,” McCray said. TV One in December will air Dear Santa, I Need a Date, starring Ray J, Reagan Gomez-Preston and Anna-Marie Johnson.

“African-Americans and people of color love all types of genres and it’s no surprise that feel-good content is appealing during the holiday season,” McCray added.

BET and BET Her will simulcast four Christmas- themed movies across four straight Saturdays beginning Nov. 30: Christmas Belles, Hip Hop Holiday, ’Twas the Chaos Before Christmas and Holiday Heist.

“At BET, we know that binging on holiday movies can be comfort food for the soul, and our audience is no exception to this viewing phenomenon, so we’re proud to present our new original holiday programming to bring that holiday cheer to our audience,” said Maureen Guthman, BET senior vice president, content strategy.

OWN, which targets African-American women, will jump into the original movies arena for the first time with three holiday-themed movies debuting in November: One Fine Christmas starring Rick Fox and Vanessa Williams; Carole’s Christmas, featuring Jackée Harry and Kimberly Elise; and Baking Christmas, starring Tim Reid.

“We’ve created scripted programming that’s relatable and reflective of the lives of our African-American female audience, and we feel that it’s a natural extension for us to go into the holiday movies space,” OWN president Tina Perry said. “We will be telling the same stories that are relatable, that reflect her life and experiences at that time of the year.”

Networks targeting more general audiences are also diversifying their holiday fare. Nearly half of Lifetime’s 28 planned movies will star people of color, including Tatyana Ali (The Christmas Hotel), Kim Fields (You Light Up My Christmas), Kelly Rowland (Merry Liddle Christmas), Loretta Devine (A Sweet Christmas Romance) and Keshia Knight Pulliam (Radio Christmas).

Hallmark Channel will offer four holiday films with lead actors of color, including the Tamera Mowry-Housley starrer A Christmas Miracle, Crown Media Family Networks CEO Bill Abbott said.