Candace Cameron Bure is no longer the queen of Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel. Instead, she has moved on to the Great American Family on a different network.
And she hopes that her new family will still watch Christmas movies with Jesus in them.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, she explains what she means.
Bure said of the faith-based network, “My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning, purpose, and depth.” “I knew the people behind Great American Family were Christians who loved the Lord and wanted to spread faith-based programming and good family entertainment.”
Bure had been in many holiday movies on the Hallmark Channel since 2008, but she announced earlier this year that she was leaving the network.
She said, “I’m very excited to create a heartwarming family and faith-based programming and make the kind of stories my family and I love to watch.”
“GAC [Great American Channels] is a perfect fit for my brand because we both want to make interesting, clean content for people who want to watch shows for and with their families. My partnership with GAC is about making great entertainment with a good message.”
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Bure saw Bill Abbott again when he joined the network.
Abbott ran Crown Media Family Networks, the company that owns the Hallmark Channel. He also helped Bure get his career off the ground at the network.
Even though it might not be ideal to start over at a network that not many people know about, Bure is looking forward to the challenge. This is because Hallmark has changed a lot over the years.
“Because of the change in leadership, it’s a whole new network from when I first joined,” she said.
In 2015, when Bure was a co-host on The View, she supported a bakery that wouldn’t make a cake for a same-sex wedding.
She said at the time, “I don’t think this is at all unfair.” “This is about the freedom to join together, the Constitution’s rights, and the First Amendment’s rights. We still have the freedom to choose who we hang out with.”
When Abbott ran Hallmark, the channel was criticized for taking too long to make different kinds of movies.
People were also upset that Hallmark wouldn’t air an ad from the wedding planning website Zola that showed two brides kissing.
After hearing what people had to say, Hallmark changed their minds.
“I think traditional marriage will be at the heart of the Great American Family,” she said.
However, Abbott wasn’t as clear about what he thought about diversity on the channel.
“It’s 2022, so we know what’s going on,” he said. “There’s no whiteboard with ‘Yes, this’ or ‘No, we’ll never go there’ written on it.”
Even though Great American Family doesn’t have plans to show the 7.1 percent of U.S. adults who identify as LGBT right now, Bure said she’s glad she has the freedom to make something other than a rom-com.
“My kids have asked me, ‘Mom, are you leaving the big city and going to the farm to meet the love of your life?'” she said. “All those things are fun, and we love seeing them, but we see them all the time.”