ABC had the top score in broadcast ratings Wednesday. It was a soft night for the Nielsens, ABC winning with a 0.6 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 3 share. That got by the 0.5/3s that Fox and Univision both rated. 

Animated movie Up got a 0.7 on Fox and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD slid 25% to 0.3. 

Fox had a MasterChef rerun and Ultimate Tag tallied a flat 0.6. 

On Univision it was Te Doy La Vida at 0.5, Amor Eterno at 0.6 and Como Tu No Hay 2 a 0.5, each one up a tenth from last week. 

CBS and NBC both scored a 0.4/3. On CBS, game show Game On! got a 0.6, level with its premiere, and led into repeated dramas. 

NBC had Chicago reruns. 

Telemundo scored a 0.3/2. Cennet, 100 Dias Para Enamorarnos and La Reina del Sur 2 all got a 0.3, the first two flat and La Reina up a tenth. 

The CW did a 0.1/1. The 100 got a level 0.2 and a Bulletproof rerun followed. 

Wednesday is movie day on ABC, as the network kicks off a primetime film series May 20. Moana shows May 20, Thor: the Dark World airs May 27, Up plays June 3 and Big Hero 6 is on June 10. Airing with The Wonderful World of Disney rubric, the movies are also available on streaming service Disney+.

Networks are hosting movie nights with production staggered due to the pandemic. CBS kicked off its movie night May 3.

Moana is about a teen who sets sail on a daring mission to fulfill her ancestors’ unfinished quest. Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson provide voices in the animated film.

Thor: The Dark World continues the adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman star.

Up centers on 78-year-old Carl Fredrickson, a retired balloon salesman who ties thousands of balloons to his house and lifts off. Ed Asner does the voice for Carl.

Animated Big Hero 6 is about Baymax, a personal companion robot who forms a special bond with robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada.

Up TV specializes in positive content in an era that can feel pretty negative. “We Get Family,” goes its tagline, and Amy Winter, executive vice president and general manager, believes families will still watch together, if the content is right, at a time when kids increasingly disappear to their rooms, iPad in hand, to watch their own stuff.

Up TV, part of InterMedia Partners, is a true independent. Its shows are a mix of unscripted homegrown series, such as Bringing Up Bates and Expecting, and scripted off-network stuff, such as Parenthood and Gilmore Girls.

Winter came on board at Up TV in 2015 after a long run at TLC. She spoke with Multichannel News about the challenge of being independent in the age of scale, and why America is seeking out more positive television right now. An edited transcript follows.

MCN: You reached 100 episodes for Bringing Up Bates. Why is the Bates family attractive to viewers?
Amy Winter: They check so many boxes for TV entertainment in general and then specifically our brand. It’s 19 kids — there are kids of all ages going through a lot of different stages of life. We’ve got the older ones starting relationships, starting their own families. The younger ones are there for entertainment. That has been really the heart of the entertainment factor but I think what people keep coming back for is, they’re just a good family. They’re very funny and they give each other a hard time. In their hearts, in the way they live their lives, they’re people you can feel good for watching.

MCN: Any new shows that might battle Bringing Up Bates for ratings primacy?
AW: I’m very excited about the new night of content that we’re rolling out on Fridays. We’re calling it Life’s Biggest Moments. We’re starting with our baby shows — Expecting started [April 6] — we had a very encouraging start to the series. That follows the journey to parenthood. It is all self-shot [cast members do their own camera work], so it is remarkably intimate. We’ll move on to weddings in June, which we’re very excited about.

MCN: Is Up’s positive message a good thing right now in this country?
AW: It’s absolutely what sets us apart from the television landscape. Up’s positivity and uplifting content is being sought after specifically by the audience we’re talking to. We just completed the fourth phase of a study where we have identified an audience called Family in Mind. The No. 1 driver of what they want to see on television and what they’re not seeing enough of are shows they can share with family. What they want to share is positivity. What they want to do is collect everybody and sit down and watch together. I think we’re seeing proof of our promise to viewers. We’re always in the top 10 most co-viewed networks.

MCN: Do families still want to watch TV together?
AW: I believe so. The content mix that we do, we’re trying to entertain adults first. We hold our shows to that standard. We want to have you and your partner come to the set and watch together. But we’re also putting out shows that you can feel good about watching as an entire family. We are definitely seeing that happen as we engage with viewers.

MCN: Up does not have its own scripted series?
AW: There are no scripted shows currently planned but we do scripted movies. We focus most of them during the holiday time frame. Christmas is a big season for us — we’ll have seven original movies during that time.

MCN: Tell me about Up’s new streaming service.
AW: Up Faith & Family is our streaming service. It’s available on a number of different providers. Amazon has something like 200 channels and Up Faith & Family has cracked the top five on that service. We’re also rolling out direct-to-consumer and a number of other places as well.

MCN: What is it like as an independent network these days? Is it challenging?
AW: It’s challenging as an independent but it also energizes our team to be smarter and scrappier than anybody else. We find that we can go out and make relationships with some of the other independents out there. It really just energizes us to think a little bit differently than everybody else who’s in the portfolio game.

Christmas is less than a week away, but television viewers have been celebrating the holiday season since Halloween, watching holiday-themed programming that has delivered a ratings gift to networks.

Holiday movies and specials from cable networks like Hallmark Channel, UP TV and Freeform have benefited from viewers’ seeming desire to see uplifting, comfort programming after a difficult 2016 marked by an unnerving presidential campaign and troubling economic conditions in the country.

“This year the environment overall admittedly has helped us,” Crown Media Family Networks president and CEO Bill Abbott said. “People are looking for that safe destination that they can feel good when they get to it, and that’s played a big role in our success.”

Hallmark, which launched its lineup of 19 original holiday films before Halloween, has consistently finished among the top three most watched networks in primetime during the month of December. The network’s sixth annual "Countdown to Christmas" programming stunt is up by double digits among all key demos compared with last year’s edition, including a 22% jump among total viewers, according to Hallmark officials.

Sister service Hallmark Movies and Mysteries is also performing well with viewers. The network set a ratings record among adults 25-54 with its Dec. 11 original movie Sound Of Christmas.

UP’s “We Get Christmas” lineup has remained hot after launching over the first weekend of November with 5.5 million viewers, led by the premiere of its original holiday movie Married by Christmas, the network said.

Freeform’s annual “25 Days of Christmas,” which launched during the Thanksgiving weekend, has catapulted the network into the top five most watched cable networks over the past two weeks. The network is averaging 1.4 million viewers in primetime during the month, well above the 893,000 viewers the network averaged in November.

Holiday programming has always appealed to viewers during the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve: 85% of all U.S. TV households, or more than 217 million viewers, watched at least one minute of holiday content last year. But the turmoil and consternation revolving around the election and other events in 2016 has made holiday content even more relevant this season.

“We’ve had such a tumultuous year that folks are looking for upbeat, positive programming, and certainly the main thrust of holiday programming is positive, uplifting and fun,” Bill Carroll, senior vice president and director of content strategy for Katz Television Group, said. “We spent so much time over the last year on both sides dealing with the election that I think viewers are looking for that end-of-the-year push for a more positive mood.”

A recent holiday season-themed poll conducted by a local Fox affiliate in York, Pa., revealed that 62% of respondents do not want to hear holiday songs from Mariah Carey, Nat King Cole and The Jackson 5 before Thanksgiving.

Yet it’s clear that some TV viewers are indeed ready to deck the halls prior to cutting the turkey, judging by the record-breaking ratings Hallmark Channel recently generated with its pre-Halloween, holiday-themed movie A Wish for Christmas (pictured).

The Oct. 29 movie premiere — the first of 19 new original holiday films in its annual “Countdown to Christmas” lineup — drew a bell-ringing 3.4 million viewers. It’s now the most-watched (and earliest-premiering) debut film for Hallmark’s annual holiday programming stunt since it started in 2009, the network said.

Not to be outdone, Hallmark’s Nov. 5 premiere of The Mistletoe Promise drew 3.9 million viewers, the network’s most watched original film of 2016.

Overall, Hallmark, and sister service Hallmark Movies & Mysteries will air a combined 12 original holiday films before Thanksgiving, not including Christmas in Homestead, which will air at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night (Nov. 24).

The strong performance of Hallmark’s holiday films over the years has emboldened the network to stretch the yuletide season well beyond its traditional limits.

The performance of A Wish for Christmas “was far greater than we ever expected, and it’s a great start to our holiday movies, which our viewers look forward to every year,” Michelle Vicary, Hallmark’s executive vice president of programming, said.

Not too far behind Hallmark in ushering the holiday season early is UP. The network’s “We Get Christmas” lineup of holiday programming launched over the weekend of Nov. 5-6 — including the premiere of its original holiday movie Married by Christmas — drew nearly 5.5 million cumulative viewers, according to the network.

A second Christmas-themed UP original movie, Merry Christmas, Baby!, debuted this past Sunday (Nov. 13).

Other networks are at least waiting until after Thanksgiving to offer up holiday programming fare. Freeform will launch a countdown to its annual “25 Days of Christmas” franchise with Christmas-themed programming beginning on Nov. 28, while TV One will unveil original holiday movie The Christmas Swap on Nov. 26 — one of two original holiday films the network plans to air before Dec. 25.

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade has yet to come and go, yet some cable-network programming lineups are already beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The traditional one-hour family drama genre, once a staple of primetime TV lineups but in recent years pushed to the backburner by darker, more provocative drama projects, is once again beginning to find its footing with the recent success of two freshman series.

Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores finished its inaugural campaign last month as the most-watched original scripted series in the network’s history, while broadcaster NBC’s This Is Us has launched this past September as one of the most watched new series of the 2016-17 television season.

TUGGING AT HEARTS

The two shows, with their heart-tugging optimism and relationship-themed plotlines, are going against the grain of today’s most popular scripted series which offer a darker, more sinister and pessimistic view of human nature. Nevertheless, the shows are tapping into an underserved audience of both older and surprisingly young viewers looking for more positive and uplifting programming options, programming executives said.

“There are a lot of great television shows out there but many are darker and edgier and have a supernatural twist,” Hallmark Channel executive vice president of programming Michelle Vicary said. “That’s a great television experience on other networks, but we found that there’s an audience for family dramas, if you do it right.”

Hallmark’s multigenerational family drama Chesapeake Shores, based on a novel series by Sherryl Woods, averaged 2.7 million viewers on a Nielsen live-plus-3 basis during its 10- episode run that ended last month, making it the most-watched original scripted series in network history.

Chesapeake Shores also finished as one of Hallmark Channel’s youngestskewing series, drawing more 18-49 year old female viewers than its other scripted content. Vicary attributed that youth appeal to the strength of Woods’s book franchise, as well as the well-written characters and storylines.

“Chesapeake Shores has proven to us that there is a bigger audience across the board for family dramas than one might think,” she said.

This Is Us, which follows a family of three kids — two siblings and an adopted child with the same birthday — throughout their childhood and adult lives, is arguably the surprise hit of the new television season. Through five episodes, its installments have posted the five highest ratings number among all telecasts of the Big Four networks’ 10 first-year dramas so far this season, according to network officials. The Oct. 25 episode averaged a season-high 8.7 million viewers.

Amy Winter, executive vice president and general manager of family-targeted network UP, believes that the success of This Is Us shows there is an audience yearning for more family dramas.

UP, which this past summer rebranded its service to focus on family-themed programming and acquired the rights to such family-themed dramas as Parenthood, will debut in 2017 its own one-hour family drama, Date My Dad, about three daughters who look to support their widowed father by searching for a companion for him.

“While they do have a certain soapiness to them, I would say that some of the stickiest plotlines that you ever see out there do relate to love and family and relationships that exist within the family,” Winter said. “Usually at the center of those dramas are people that feel like family to you, and you want to root for, and you end up picking your favorites.”

CO-VIEWING APPEAL

Winter also said that the family-drama genre appeals to viewers at the older end of the millennial demographic, age 25-34, who are settling down with families and seeking programming they can identify with to watch along with their kids.

“Some of these noisier, darker high-concept shows are definitely in the zeitgeist right now, but shows like This Is Us are proof that when you have quality storytelling, word of mouth will travel and people will come to it,” Winter said. “There’s also a misperception that the cooler, edgier and darker you go, the more you capture the younger side of this audience, but the quality storytelling in these one-hour dramas goes beyond something that might be more gimmicky.”

RELATED:Summer's Top Shows Among African-Americans

While multicultural cable TV series have been getting all the press recently, made-for-TV movies with people of color both in front of and behind the camera are very quietly receiving major play on a number of cable networks and streaming services.

Recent multicultural-themed original cable movies have drawn both critical acclaim and large audiences. HBO’s Bessie, starring Queen Latifah as blues artist Bessie Smith, drew 13 Emmy nominations this past July — the most for any made-for-cable movie.

Lifetime’s Whitney, which chronicled the life of the iconic performer Whitney Houston, drew 5.1 million viewers this past January, the biggest audience for an original cable movie this year other than those on kids-targeted Disney Channel.

Lifetime has produced several original films in the last three years featuring predominantly African-American actors and actresses, in an effort to reach African-American women, who represent 36% of the network’s movie audience.

Lifetime senior vice president of original movies Tanya Lopez said movies such as Whitney — as well as Trip to Bountiful, based on the popular play of the same name and starring Cicely Tyson, and an African-American version of 1989’s Steel Magnolias — super-serve that already strong base.

As many as three multicultural-themed movies are being developed for Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network, she added, though she would not reveal specifics.

TV One, responding to viewer requests for more storytelling, is airing a monthly movie series. D’Angela Proctor, the network’s head of original programing, said original movies allows TV One to develop stories around universal themes that appeal to a wider swath of viewers than a more tightly-focused scripted series.

Original movies, such as the network’s upcoming Runaway Island and Girlfriends Getaway 2, also provide the network with content that has a long shelf life and can work well on various platforms, she added.

UP, formerly Gospel Music Channel, has consistently delivered movies featuring people of color in prominent roles as it looks to broaden its audience base. It recently teamed with actor-producer Robert Townsend on a July basketball-themed film, Playin’ for Love (see Q&A with Townsend), and is developing several movies, including three holiday films with diverse casts: My Christmas Wish, Angels in the Snow and Marry US for Christmas, Barbara Fisher, senior vice president of original programming for UP network, said.

Networks have also used original movies as pilots for potential scripted series. BET’s 2013 airing of original drama Being Mary Jane was so successful that the network turned the Gabrielle Union starrer into a scripted series, with its third season now in production.

“These long leads not only provide great content for us, but also give us an indication of whether this is something we can take further and make into a series,” BET president of programming Stephen Hill said.

Added UP’s Fisher: “There’s not enough people pitching me series with diverse casts or diverse leads, so it’s a great way for me to go back to our movies, which already have that, and use them as possibilities for expanding into series.”

Over a career that has spanned more than three decades, actor, filmmaker and director Robert Townsend has been at the forefront of producing popular film and television content featuring multicultural actors and themes. Townsend, who most recently completed the family film Playin’ for Love for cable network UP, talked with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the evolving entertainment marketplace and the increasing opportunities content producers have to distribute their content across both traditional media and the emerging digital space. Townsend, best-known for such theatrical movies as Hollywood Shuffle and The Five Heartbeats, as well as television comedy series The Parent’Hood, also talked about the explosion of programming featuring people of color both in front of and behind the camera. An edited transcript follows.

MCN:As a producer, is this a golden age of sorts, given the multitude of outlets and distribution platforms to showcase your content?

Robert Townsend: It’s a really exciting time — it’s just trying to figure it out, because pieces move so quickly. All of this technology is developing so quickly — now you have Periscope, video streaming and VOD — so part of the game now is learning. Once you have the content, everybody is trying to figure out how to monetize it. So there are maybe new distribution platforms, but it’s also about understanding how to best use it. There has never before in history been a time when you could reach your target audience yourself. I think everybody is trying to figure it out and we’re all in a learning curve right now.

MCN:Having said that, have you explored these other platforms for your film and TV content?

RT: Here’s the thing: I’m in it totally. I’ve played a little with the Web and I’ve never been afraid to explore. I explored the Web when it was developing when I was doing content for the Black Family Channel, so I’ve always been an explorer and I’m always looking at what’s next. I get the traditional system — I just did a film with UP on cable and my next studio film will be a remake of Brewster’s Millions — and I will always have one foot in dealing with the studios and the traditional media. But I will always look ahead. It’s really an exciting time because there are so many outlets doing content — again, as always, it’s trying to find the right fit for my content.

MCN:Do you see yourself continuing to work within the traditional TV arena going forward?

RT: My film with the UP channel is the first project we’re doing together, but we’ve been talking about doing other things. I have different ideas — some are family-friendly and some are more edgy — but we’re looking at other opportunities, including a series.

MCN:Your films typically fall into the family-entertainment genre. Given the recent popularity of edgier, more adult-themed dramas on television and in film, is there still a viable audience for family-friendly programming?

RT: It’s a funny time now, because we have some films that are family, but you don’t have a lot. I see today the kids are looking for content that’s much edgier, so I think when you try to pull it back some and allow these kids be kids for as long as possible, they don’t really have a lot of outlets that encourage that. So, on one hand, you have a lot of these edgy reality shows, but then for kids, you have to find those other vehicles that provide more uplifting content.

MCN:In the past year, there has been a flurry of successful television shows featuring predominantly multicultural casts. Do you see that trend continuing, particularly as more content distributors look for new and unique original programming?

RT: Everything comes in cycles, and right now we’re at an upswing where you have the different networks producing content like Empire and Black-ish. When I think about Shonda Rhimes, I think of an amazing, visionary artist who’s now able to do her own thing — she’s one of the most prolific showrunners in history and she happens to be a woman of color. I’ve been in the game for a long time, so for me this time is what I’ve always been talking about in terms of people of color really breaking through, so it’s an exciting time.

UP Network takes a takes a shot at an original drama with its new show Ties That Bind.

The series, the first scripted effort for the family-entertainment network, stars Kelli Williams as Allison McLean, a strong-willed woman who juggles being a tough police detective with her role as caring wife and mother of two teen kids. When her brother Tim (Luke Perry) is sent to prison for two years on an aggravated assault conviction that Allison had a hand in securing, she takes in her brother’s two teenage kids, Mariah (Matreya Scarrwener) and Cameron (Rhys Matthew Bond).

Click here to see a video of Kelli Williams discussing her starring role in Ties That Bind.

The move isn’t necessarily welcomed by Allison’s husband Matt (Jonathan Scarfe), her son Jeff (Mitchell Kummen) or her daughter Rachel (Natasha Calis) -- not to mention by Tim’s children, who are a little upset over Allison’s role in their father’s incarceration.

On top of all of that, Allison has to track down the bad guys with her partner Devin (Dion Johnstone). In the first episode Allison and Devin look to solve a robbery perpetrated by an young, teen boy and his pregnant girlfriend. The writers do a good job of juxtaposing Allison’s dogged but humane approach to policing with her struggles at home.

Ties That Bind stays true to UP’s brand while not being preachy or mushy. The result is a well-rounded and entertaining series that adults will like and won’t be afraid to watch with their kids.

UP will step into the very crowded and competitive scripted-series arena with the August launch of its new drama series Ties That Bind.

Known more for family-friendly, inspirational original movies and reality shows, Ties That Bind, which starts Aug. 12, stars Kelli Williams (The Practice) as a woman who looks to balance her life as a hard-nosed detective and a single mom.

The show will be a key part of UP’s presentation during this week’s annual Television Critics Association summer tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. UP will be one of about 20 cable networks to introduce new original scripted series, reality shows, miniseries and documentaries as part of the three-day cable portion of the tour, presented by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing and beginning July 28.

UP’s first scripted series is a natural extension of its original movies strategy, senior vice president of original programming Barbara Fisher said.

“We recognize that it’s series that are defining networks these days,” she said. “While movies are the backbone of your network, it’s really series that bring attention to the network.”

Fisher said the drama series deals with some gritty issues, such as domestic abuse, divorce and crime — always within the network’s theme of uplifiting, family-friendly programming. The episodes always end with the family settling down to share a meal, she said, stressing the family values that typify the network’s brand.

Networks such as Hallmark Channel have shown that family-friendly series can draw an audience, Fisher said, adding that she hopes the dramatic themes in Ties That Bind will draw viewers looking for safe and entertaining programming.

“A lot of the shows that get a lot of the buzz that feature anti-heroes and dark themes don’t necessarily have as wide a viewing audience as you might think,” she said. “I think there’s a huge opportunity for networks such as ours to offer something that’s uplifting — we can be family-friendly and still be relevant.”

Fisher says that the network will look to roll out at least one more scripted series in 2016 and is looking at several candidates.

TV One has hired Lori Hall as senior vice president of marketing, based in Silver Spring, Md., and reporting to network president Bradley J. Siegel. Effective immediately, she is tasked with strategically developing and executing TV One’s marketing initiatives across all platforms and initiates all phases of marketing, including advertising and branding outreach efforts in order to maximize the business and programming objectives of the network. 

She comes to TV One from UP, where since 2013 she was VP of consumer marketing. While there, she launched UP’s first ever viral video, reaching 43 million views across social media in less than one week, and she oversaw the launch of Bringing Up Bates, which garnered more than eight million viewers in season one, TV One said. She also launched a successful Easter campaign in support of the premiere of Passion of the Christ, UP's most-watched movie event. She also negotiated an exclusive media partnership with Steve Harvey resulting in UP’s inaugural sponsorship of The Neighborhood Awards. Before joining UP, she oversaw numerous successful marketing campaigns at Turner Entertainment Networks, including TBS’s Cougar Town and Men at Work as well as Tyler Perry’s hit sitcoms For Better or Worse, House of Payne and Meet the Browns. 

UP TV has named ex-Discovery Communications executive Amy Winter as its executive vice president and general manager.

In the newly created position, Winter will oversee programming and brand development for the 10-year-old network, inclusive of development and production of series and movies, said network officials. Winter has been consulting at UP (formerly Aspire) since May 2014 and oversaw a new on-air look and branding. She also greenlit two new UP original series, the reality show Bringing Up Bates and Ties that Bind, the network's first scripted series, currently in pre-production, the network said. 

Winter, who will report to Charley Humbard, president and CEO of UP, will also be responsible for scheduling and acquisitions, marketing and public relations, and digital and social media properties.

Winter’s appointment follows the October departure of former UP vice chairman Brad Siegel, who in December was named president of TV One.

Winter formerly served as executive vice president and general manager of TLC, where she led the general entertainment network to a record 32 series averaging one million viewers or more.

"Amy Winter is a one of a kind media executive … she combines an intuitive sensibility for understanding what viewers like to watch and how to communicate with them, with a strategic operational discipline for focusing on what drives ratings and revenue,” said Humbard. “Amy is the right person to lead our content and marketing areas and to further shape our distinct brand identity which promises to always uplift you and your family.”

Newly minted TV One president Brad Siegel wants to better define the network’s brand in an effort to be more competitive.

Siegel, just tapped to head up operations for the 10-year-old channel, said consumers know it as an entertainment service targeting African-American viewers, but he said it needs to narrow its focus to be more successful.

“The network gets watched and they clearly know it’s targeted to African-Americans, but if you press people beyond the demographic, its gets harder to define the brand,” he said. “We need to do the work that goes into brand-building to better understand the audience.”

Siegel, formerly vice chairman for UP TV, inherits a 56.5 million-subscriber network that averaged 178,000 primetime viewers in November — down 11% compared to the same period last year — but has had success with such series franchises as Unsung, R&B Divas and, more recently, Hollywood Divas.

Though African-American viewers watch more television than any other group, TV One is competing with targeted services BET, Centric, Aspire and broadcast multicast service Bounce TV, as well as such general-entertainment networks as WE tv, Oxygen and Lifetime who are reaching out to African-American women through original reality shows.

“In order to compete in that increasingly competitive landscape, TV One’s brand has to be much better defined and articulated so that people really know what TV One is about, beyond it just being an entertainment network with a collection of programming that targets African-Americans,” Siegel said. “Once we define that brand it will direct our original programming development efforts in a more focused way.”

Siegel hopes to have a more defined brand for TV One by the upfront season next spring. “Hopefully by then, we’ll be able to shape the conversation about where TV One is going and where it needs to go in order to grow to the next level.”

You know Rudolph and Frosty and Elf, and the Grinch and Scrooge and Snoopy, but do you recall … ever seeing so many shows before Christmas? Ever?

With Santa’s arrival nearly a month away, the cable box is stuffed like a stocking with more holiday shows than ever before, and many of them are completely new originals.

Take Hallmark Channel’s Nov. 29 debut of Christmas Under Wraps — one of 12 original holiday films airing on the network in November and December — about a big-city surgeon who falls in love with a handsome small-town local and has to make a life-changing decision that will forever alter her future Christmases.

While some may yawn at the saccharine story line, the show delivered a rare ratings gift for Hallmark: A network-record 5.8 million viewers, besting such highly-touted original cable films as Syfy’s Sharknado 2: The Second One.

IT STARTED ON HALLOWEEN

For Hallmark and several other networks, cable’s holiday-movie season — which began in earnest Halloween night with Hallmark Movies and Mysteries debuting the 2008 original film Our First Christmas, up against slasher movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Saw — is already spreading a lot of ratings cheer.

Nearly 30 original holiday films are slated to air from November through Christmas on cable networks ranging from Hallmark Channel to new entrants like BET — as well as hundreds of classic holiday chestnuts such as Miracle on 34th Street and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation airing on dozens of other networks.

Hallmark’s ratings success with Christmas Under Wraps — second only to the 6 million viewers garnered by Lifetime’s Flowers in the Attic for top audience honors among original cable movies this year — is just the tip of the ratings iceberg.

UP’s Nov. 30 The Tree That Saved Christmas — one of six original movies premiering this season — reached more viewers in the network’s adult and female 25-54 target demos than any show in the network’s 10-year history.

Lifetime has already generated more than 1 million viewers for two of its holiday-related movies, with two more films slated to premiere over the next week. Network executives said viewers yearning for family-friendly programming, as well as a growing desire to escape the negative drumbeat of current events this year, have tuned to holiday films in a big way.

“Probably 90% of these Christmas movies are about family and relationships and lack a lot of the cynicism that’s in other entertainment programming,” Tanya Lopez, senior vice president of original movies for Lifetime, said. “With everything negative that’s going on, people want to go to their happy place, where it feels like comfort food.”

Indeed, the protests over police shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and New York, as well as ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, have had a positive ratings effect on heart-warming, and family-friendly Holiday programming.

“Typically, holiday programming is positive, and I think that when people have their gatherings and they’re looking for something to watch, everyone in the family can watch a holiday program,” D’Angela Proctor, senior vice president of programming and production for TV One, said. The network this past Saturday aired Second Chance Christmas, a touching family-themed movie which the network was hoping to pull in viewers beyond its target 25-54 African-American audience.

No brand is more synonymous with holiday fare as Hallmark, and viewers are flocking to the network and its sister service Hallmark Movies and Mysteries in record-breaking fashion. With more than half of its 12 original movies premiering since Nov. 1, Hallmark is on a record breaking ratings pace, according to Crown Media Family Networks president and CEO Bill Abbott.

Riding the sleigh of Christmas-themed content last month, Hallmark averaged 1.8 million primetime viewers in November, fourth best among all cable networks.

Four of its original Christmas films — Northpole (4 million viewers), The Christmas Shepherd (4.1 million viewers), A Royal Christmas (4.4 million) and Christmas Under Wraps (5.8 million) — rank among the top 10 most watched movies on cable in 2014.

Abbott said both networks have stepped up the production quality of its holiday movies as well as the movies’ star power — Rob Morrow, Alan Thicke, Robert Wagner, Jill St. John and Jane Seymour are a few of the notables appearing in this year’s Hallmark holiday films — which has translated into big ratings gains.

SETTING A FESTIVE MOOD

“We are an oasis, especially given the tough images that people have seen over the past couple of weeks,” Abbott said. “But I believe that we’ve upped the ante on our content, and that is fueling the success that we’re experiencing.”

Other networks are hoping to appeal to diverse viewers and millennials with its holiday fare. BET on Tuesday will debut its first original holiday comedy fi lm, A Very Larry Christmas, starring Tatyana Ali, Loretta Devine and Charles S. Dutton.

Lifetime looked to tap young women along with its core 25-54 female audience with its Nov. 22 En Vogue Christmas. The movie, which stars the members of ’90 s R&B group En Vogue as they reunite to raise money for a struggling family nightclub during the holiday season, drew 1 million viewers in its Nov. 22 premiere, according to the network.

A second Lifetime film, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever starring the popular Scrooge-like Internet feline, averaged 1.7 million viewers in its Nov. 29 premiere.

Lifetime’s Lopez said with the glut of holiday programming in the marketplace, it’s important to break through the cookie-cutter, romantic holiday drama model in order to reach younger viewers.

“What we were putting out there is a variety of Christmas-themed movies to see if there was a younger audience available,” Lopez said.

ABC Family decided to forgo orignal Christmas movies altogether and instead will look to reach its target millennial audience through holiday-themed episodes of its most popular scripted series as part of its annual “25 Days of Christmas” programming stunt. The Fosters, Switched at Birth, Pretty Little Liars, Chasing Life, Melissa & Joey and Baby Daddy are set to air Christmas episodes this week (Dec. 8-10).

VERY SPECIAL EPISODES

While it’s very common for networks to produce holiday specials for its top shows to generate high ratings, ABC Family executive vice president of strategy and programming Salaam Coleman Smith said the network will also use the specials as a way to promote the upcoming fall season for many of the shows.

“The holiday season is really important to our millennial audience because holidays combine nostalgia with family and festivity,” she said. “We felt there was a real opportunity to create holiday specials for our originals and to create a platform for their January launches.”

With nearly 1,500 hours of holiday fare scheduled this season between the Hallmark Channels, ABC Family, Lifetime and UP alone, Abbott said he does have some concerns about genre overkill.

“There is a limit and I think we’re getting there,” Abbott said. “If you look at the radio model you see not everyone converts to Holiday music 24/7, so certainly there’s a finite amount of programming people want to tune into. But our brand gives us so much of an advantage and allows us to continue to grow.”

UP has commissioned its first original scripted series, The Ties That Bind, the network said Wednesday.

The hybrid police procedural/family drama will revolve around the professional and personal life of police detective Allison Manchester, said network officials. Sheryl J. Anderson (Charmed, The Town that Came A-Courtin) will serve as executive producer of the 10-episode series along with Stan Spry (The Town that Came A-Courtin, A Place in the Sun).

Ties That Bind will be produced by Cartel Entertainment and will begin production in February with a series premiere set for summer 2015.

"Ties That Bind is series about a family, loyalty and the limits of love," said Barbara Fisher, senior vice president, original programming, UP in a statement.  "It is just what we were looking for in our first scripted series-- an entertaining show with a complicated lead tackling life's most difficult challenges, while still enjoying romance and wonderful family moments. The lead character, Allison, is relatable to any working woman trying to balance her professional role with that of being a wife and mother."  

As UP network — formerly the Gospel Music Channel — celebrated its 10th anniversary last week, network’s vice chairman Brad Siegel announced his plans to depart from the channel by year-end. Siegel spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about his decade-long run with the network and his future plans as well as his thoughts on an evolving cable industry. An edited transcript follows.

MCN: What was behind your decision to leave the network?

Brad Siegel: When I left Turner at the end of 2003, what I wanted to do was to build a network again. I’ve always liked startups and I wanted to build something from scratch and that’s what I did with Gospel Music Channel with 1,700 homes in Johnson, Tenn., 10 years ago. Now we’re in close to 70 million homes so it was a great ride.

From Gospel Music Channel to GMC: Uplifting Entertainment and now to UP, the mission has remained the same: to offer positive, family friendly entertainment. For me, we’ve done so much, so after 10 years I wanted to do something different. With my contract up at the end of the year, I approached Charley [Humbard, UP president and CEO] and said I’m really ready to move on and look for a new challenge. I have a few things in the works that I’ll announce in the near future.

MCN: What do you consider your legacy at UP?

BS: I’m proud of the fact that given our limited resources, we are in the middle of the pack out of 150 rated networks, even with our small marketing budgets and small original programming budgets, and I’m proud of building a place where people like to come to work to every day. There are a lot of networks and a lot of programming out there that people are not proud of, so I think that we built a place that’s a great place to work.

I’m also proud of the development of Aspire — it was a passion project for me along with Mr. [Earvin “Magic”] Johnson and then successfully [pitching] it to Comcast and being the first minority-owned network that Comcast launched as part of their commitment after they merged with NBC Universal. That was two years ago, and now the network is in 21 million homes and growing. It’s a brand that’s unique in the television landscape.

MCN: Your success with Gospel Music Channel/UP as an independently-owned network is rare in cable. How do you see today’s cable environment for launching a new independent channel?

BS: The environment of independent networks has only gotten worse. For independents and linear networks in general, you’re hard pressed to find a genre that’s really not represented on television. I think that the cost of competing in this environment today is so extraordinary, both for getting distribution and then getting ratings. Also, I don’t think we’ve ever seen the rate of change within the industry evolve as quickly as it’s moving now. The way people are consuming television has never changed at a rate faster than we are currently experiencing.

MCN: What would it take to launch a successful independent network today?

BS: You have to have a vision, a mission and a brand proposition that is clearly defined, and have a large and passionate target audience that understands and demands that brand. That to me is absolutely critical to succeed always, but more so in today’s cable environment.

MCN: Having said that would you entertain launching an independent television network in the future?

BS: No, not a startup. I definitely feel like I have another network or two in me and I’m looking at several other things and opportunities.

UP network will launch a new reality series in January that follows the exploits of a family with 19 children.

The 13-episode series, Bringing Up Bates, premieres Jan. 1 and focuses in on the everyday life of the close knit, Tennessee-based Bates family with 19 children and their new grandchild, said network officials.

Bringing Up Bates will be the second reality series focused on a family with 19 or more children following TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting series.

UP Entertainment will produce the series along with Figure 8 Films.  Bill Hayes, Kirk Streb and Matthew Hightower will serve as executive Producers for the series. 

“Bringing Up Bates lets us look in on the daily lifestyle of a wonderful, loving family – that happens to be larger than most – and that has experiences we can relate to and some that are very unexpected,” said  Charley Humbard, president and CEO of UP in a statement. “This series fits perfectly with UP’s brand promise to always uplift and entertain viewers and it represents the latest example of our commitment to produce original series, movies and specials for the whole family.” 

After a decade at the network, Brad Siegel has stepped down from his role as vice chairman of UP TV.

Siegel, along with Charley Humbard, launched the independent music-oriented service then known as Gospel Music Channel in 2004 to a handful of small distributors. Siegel joined Humbard, a Discovery Communications executive and son of TV preacher Rex Humbard, following his 2003 departure from Turner Broadcasting, where he ultimately served as president of Turner Entertainment Networks.

News of Siegel’s exit was first reported by Variety.

Siegel and UP, which was rebranded from GMC in 2013, also work closely with Magic Johnson’s Aspire cable network, handling programming, advertising and affiliate sales.

Humbard informed the staffs of both networks about Siegel today, noting that “we will move quickly to bring in a senior executive to assume Brad's responsibilities and expect to have an announcement in the very near future. In the meantime I will oversee programming and marketing, as we continue our development and production of original movies and series.”

Humbard levied praise on Siegel in his role is launching the service and spreading its growth to some 70 million subscribers today.

“Building a cable brand into the second-largest independent network in this challenging environment required a person with enormous energy, talent and relational strength," Humbard said is a statement.  "Having Brad as my partner for the last 10 years to develop UP TV into a leading destination for uplifting family entertainment has been enormously rewarding. Brad’s experience and relationships with advertisers and program distributors were invaluable in jump starting our business.  He spearheaded our successful push into original programming, an initiative that we will continue to expand as we move into 2015, and was instrumental in the launch of Aspire.  All of us at UP and Aspire wish Brad great success in his next endeavor.”