You love Hallmark Christmas movies? Are you as devoted as this Johnson County couple?
There’s no question Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown to Christmas” movies have developed a fan following. Anyone who’s wandered into a Hallmark Cards store the past couple of years has seen evidence of the Christmas movies’ following in the piles of merchandise for sale.
But it’s tough to beat the dedication of Joe and Cheryl Maggio of Olathe, who have watched almost every Hallmark Channel (and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries) Christmas film that’s been produced. In 2016 Joe started jotting down in a notebook the couples’ ratings for the movies (new and from previous years) that he eventually transfers to a spreadsheet on his computer.
Joe and Cheryl rate each movie (1 is the worst, 5+ is the best) and Joe may write down the rationale for the score. Sometimes they re-evaluate their scores on subsequent viewings.
“Every year there were more and more movies and every Christmastime, whenever these movies came on, we’d know which ones that were not new that we previously liked and we’d watch them again,” Joe says, noting ratings also come in handy when Hallmark airs its “Christmas in July” programming stunt, rerunning some Christmas films each summer and introducing a few new titles. “That gave us the opportunity to pick and choose which ones we wanted to see again and which ones we didn’t care for.”
The Maggios’ all-time favorites include 2008’s “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” (this year airing at 7 p.m. Nov. 29, 11 p.m. Dec. 16), starring Brooke Burns and Henry Winkler, and 2013’s “A Very Merry Mixup” (1 a.m. Nov. 30), starring Hallmark regular Alicia Witt.
The Maggios have a Hallmark Channel Christmas movies blanket and both have Hallmark Channel socks. A doormat reads, “Shhh, I’m watching Hallmark movies. Come on in anyway.” Cheryl wears her Hallmark Christmas movies T-shirt sometimes while watching the channel.
“It’s just like we wear our Chiefs shirts when the Kansas City Chiefs play,” Cheryl says. “Our daughter-in-law made us a plaque with the Hallmark crown that says ‘Hallmark Movie King and Queen.’”
So why the devotion? Though she “hesitates to call them cheesy,” Cheryl says they’re predictable but fun. Prior to his death in 2016, Cheryl’s father would come over every Sunday night for dinner and to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie (into February and other Hallmark movies in the months after), and he’d always say the same thing at the start of every movie: “Well, we know where this is going, we just don’t know how we’ll get there.”
“That has stayed in our hearts,” Cheryl says. “Those Sunday nights with my dad are a wonderful memory.”
Joe says he recognizes that many of the Hallmark holiday films are “geared to women,” but he loves watching them, too.
“When the movie starts, the relationship is so distant, and as the movie continues, they start to fall for one another and end up falling in love,” Joe says. “That’s the predictability, but it’s so interesting, this progression that happens. It just makes it worth watching as far as I’m concerned.”
Joe, 75, and Cheryl, 72, both retired about nine years ago. He was a benefits specialist and Army Reservist; she was a medical secretary. Both concede the Hallmark Christmas movie ratings project is Joe’s baby, but Cheryl is a self-avowed “TV person,” a regular viewer of “Good Morning America” and “the fun shows,” such as “Dancing With the Stars” and “America’s Got Talent.”
“We tape everything because of the commercials,” Cheryl says. “We rarely watch anything live.”
And while they verbally rate Hallmark’s weekly series, like “Chesapeake Shores” and “When Calls the Heart,” only the Christmas movie ratings get recorded in Joe’s logbook.
But they do miss a few Hallmark Christmas movies. They skipped 2020’s “The Christmas House,” the first Hallmark holiday film to prominently feature a gay couple (a sequel, “The Christmas House 2: Deck Those Halls” debuts at 8 p.m. Dec. 18).
That choice is emblematic of the tightrope walk Hallmark Channel executives face: How to keep viewers like the Maggios watching while also appealing to younger viewers who prefer to see more diverse, accurate representations of contemporary America.
Crown Media, the parent company of Hallmark’s cable channels, has gone through a wholesale change in leadership over the past two years. Longtime CEO Bill Abbott departed in January 2020 after fallout from pulling commercials featuring a same-sex wedding.
This year Abbott became CEO of GAC Media, who rebranded the Great American Country Channel as GAC Family in a bid to create a new Hallmark rival. He also signed new multi-film deals with reliable Hallmark stars Danica McKellar and Trevor Donovan and picked up a second season of Hallmark’s canceled series “When Hope Calls,” which has its season premiere Dec. 18 on GAC Family featuring a guest spot from Lori Laughlin. She reprises her “When Calls the Heart” character, Abigail Stanton, a part Hallmark fired her from after her role in a college admissions cheating scandal.
Crown Media’s new CEO, Wonya Lucas, arrived in August 2020 after a stint as CEO of Black-targeted cable channel TV One. Even before Lucas’ arrival, Hallmark had been working to improve its track record on diversity following criticism over a dearth of inclusion.
While ratings for Hallmark Christmas movies have declined somewhat over the past five years, Hallmark movies haven’t seen as precipitous a ratings drop as overall prime-time TV ratings.
This year’s “Countdown to Christmas,” which began Oct. 22, has kept Hallmark Channel in the ratings winner’s circle for the past month, making it the No. 1 most-watched entertainment cable channel among households and several demographics: women age 18 and up, women 18-49, women 25-54 and in total viewers.
The Maggios have remained loyal. While they also started rating Christmas movies on Lifetime in the past few years, they not only watch the Hallmark movies but also shop in the stores of the Kansas City-based card and gift retailer.
Joe says their children, who are in their 40s, “get a big kick out of the notebook” he created and do tease them about their devotion.
“Kids are first to ridicule their parents away,” Cheryl adds. “We have friends that just watch the (Hallmark Christmas movies) periodically but we know nobody – nobody! – who has devoted their whole life to these movies.”\
And while they remain crazy for Hallmark Christmas movies, their Hallmark Movies & Mysteries viewing wanes outside the holiday season.
“We haven’t made a point to watch all of those mystery ones,” Cheryl says, chuckling. “I mean, we do have a life outside of Hallmark Channel.”
Fan sweepstakes
The Hallmark Channel on Wednesday announced a #1 Fan Sweepstakes that gives one viewer $10,000, the title of Chief Fan Officer, a movie premiere screening party and a character named for them in a future movie. The Maggios say they’re considering entering
Freelance writer Rob Owen: RobOwenTV@gmail.com or on Facebook and Twitter as RobOwenTV.
This story was originally published November 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "You love Hallmark Christmas movies? Are you as devoted as this Johnson County couple?."