{"id":48194,"date":"2025-08-05T23:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48194\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T23:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:59:08","slug":"michelle-vicary-returns-to-hallmark-as-head-of-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48194\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Vicary Returns to Hallmark as Head of Programming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMichelle Vicary<\/a> is returning to Hallmark<\/a>, this time as head of programming. In her new role, the longtime exec will oversee all production and original programming across Hallmark\u2019s content platforms.<\/p>\n

\n\tVicary was part of Hallmark\u2019s media business since its inception. After serving multiple positions, she exited the company<\/a> as executive VP of programming in 2021 after 22 years at the company.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring her tenure, she spearheaded some of the most successful series and films for the company, including \u201cWhen Calls the Heart,\u201d \u201cGood Witch,\u201d and \u201cChesapeake Shores.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVicary expanded the company\u2019s commitment to diverse storytelling, hiring multiple LGBTQ+ actors and greenlighting movies like \u201cWedding Every Weekend\u201d and \u201cThe Christmas House,\u201d the latter of which earned the network its first GLAAD Media Award nomination. One of her main focuses while at the company was to hire actors of all ages and from all beliefs and backgrounds, including Holly Robinson Peete. Vicary oversaw the development of Peete\u2019s \u201cChristmas in Evergreen\u201d film franchise, and the network\u2019s first-ever unscripted series, \u201cMeet the Peetes.\u201d The hire comes at the perfect time as the company delves further into unscripted storytelling with \u201cFinding Mr. Christmas,\u201d \u201cCelebrations With Lacey Chabert,\u201d \u201cBaked With Love: Holiday\u201d and more to come.<\/p>\n

\n\tVicary was also responsible for introducing some of the most popular actors into the Hallmark family, including Tyler Hynes, Jonathan Bennett, Luke MacFarlane, Kimberley Sustad, Nikki DeLoach, Paul Campbell, Ashley Williams, Erin Cahill and Andrew Walker.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKristin Chenoweth and Michelle Vicary arrive at a screening for \u201cA Christmas Love Story\u201d in 2019.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tAs she reenters Hallmark now, four years after her exit, it\u2019s a bit of a different world than it once was. Vicary will report to Chief Brand Officer Darren Abbott. Since he began in that role, the retail and entertainment brands have become more of a cohesive unit than ever before.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe call it One Hallmark. We are one brand. My job is to think about that opportunity through a consumer lens and deliver incredible content, incredible products and incredible experiences that leverage the full breadth of the brand. And so the future, at this point in my mind, is pretty much unlimited,\u201d says Abbott. The fandom element is something they are leaning into heavily for the first time\u00a0\u2014 the sold-out cruises, the Hallmark Christmas Experience, and just last month, their first-ever Hallmark panel at San Diego Comic-Con, which filled a 2,000-person room. \u201cYou\u2019re going to hear us talk less and less about our individual outputs or operating units. It\u2019s not just about the greeting card business or our movie business. It\u2019s about the Hallmark brand, and how we are tying all of those things together in really unique ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the brand continues to grow and partner with massive brands like the NFL<\/a>, the team is focusing on how the brand\u2019s DNA can also be represented in other genres.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Hallmark brand is a brand for all people, and we always have been. It is at the foundation of who we are, so we\u2019re going to continue to lean in on that as well. We will be telling stories that reflect the world that we live in and the diverse storytelling that we can bring to the table,\u201d says Abbott. \u201cThat was important to Michelle, it\u2019s important to me. That is part of the Hallmark brand. You can\u2019t be a brand about connecting people if you\u2019re not for all people, and so at the end of the day, that\u2019s really important to us \u2014\u00a0whether it\u2019s in the products we sell, the movies we make or the experiences that we\u2019re creating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditionally, no one knows how to tell a Christmas story like Vicary, who was part of the creation of \u201cCountdown to Christmas\u201d in 2010.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn many ways, Michelle helped create and define what we think of today about a Hallmark Christmas movie, which, in and of itself, is a unique genre that is often imitated but never duplicated,\u201d says Abbott. \u201cShe was really the missing piece of the puzzle, I think, around the way I\u2019m thinking about the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough the team has only recently begun really leaning into the experiential side of the business, Vicary saw it years ago<\/a>. In 2019, she told Variety: \u201cWhat we\u2019ve built is a brand experience. We are part of the traditions that people experience this time of year, we are what people are talking about when they talk about entertainment and Christmas, and audiences don\u2019t just like what we do, they thank us for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michelle Vicary is returning to Hallmark, this time as head of programming. In her new role, the longtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,33207,33208,348],"class_list":["post-48194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-hallmark","tag-michelle-vicary","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}