Lori Loughlin at the 2018 Hallmark Channel Summer TCA at a private residence in Beverly Hills, Calif., in July 2018. The star has been fired from the show in the wake of a college-admissions scandal, but the network has thrived. By Steven Zeitchik Steven Zeitchik Reporter covering the business of entertainment in the U.S.
As many industry figures and pundits lament the scourge of cord-cutting — in which viewers are abandoning cable subscriptions because they do not care enough about the shows being offered to pay for them — the Hearties and the show they love refute the point. But fans quickly rallied. They starting a campaign across social-media platforms with the hashtag #Hearties4S6, imploring producers and Hallmark chief Bill Abbott to find a way to keep going without its most recognizable name. Late last week executive producer Brian Bird said on Instagram the show will go on “a creative hiatus to do some retooling” — she’d be written and edited out of the season’s remaining seven episodes, but the show will return.
“I think the death of cable is being prematurely called out,” said Bruce David Klein, head of the TV production company Atlas Media Corp. who also serves on the executive committee of industry trade group the National Association of Television Program Executives. “The networks that have a specific identity where you know what you’re going to get — like Hallmark, where you know you’re going to see warm and friendly shows and movies — have a future.
Hallmark has had success with its Christmas movies, which it shows in rapid succession around the holidays, as many as three dozen in a given year. The company manages to keep budgets low, shooting those movies in as little as a few weeks and for as low as one or two million dollars, less than many independent theatrical films.
And then there’s “Heart.” Set in a Western Canada coal-mining town circa 1910, with heapings of romance and gently peddled tragedy, the series improbably continues to gain in popularity. Since its sixth-season premiere a few months ago, it has averaged 2.9 million total viewers. That is a number “Mad Men,” one of the most buzzed-about shows in the history of cable, failed to reach in every single one of its seven seasons on AMC.
This is a snotty story. People actually watch cable and love it and it turns out some amazing things.
Thank you for mentioning notwithoutjack missinglissing hurties in your article. Many of us are disillusioned by hallmarkchannel and the continued destruction of WCTH_TV billabbottHC bringjackback
Actually I find cable a wonderful experience I haven't watched network for many years.
Exactly, she’s even murdered in movies, makes one wonder.
Ah she’s married to the target designer dude. Highlight that as her source of money numb nuts
Why are you naming it after her when there was several other people involved?
She was NOT being real with those girls....to be popular, Tell your kids the Truth you don't waste my time or the Colleges so go and be successful getting a Job!
Writer forgot to emphasize the word ‘basic.’ I mean, it’s the Hallmark Channel. Doesn’t get more ‘basic’ than that.
Summary: a few old people still are still watching basic cable and we thought it was worth a whole article on the Washington Post.