There’s no doubt that the months leading up to Christmas are the most exciting time to be a Hallmark fan. Dozens of original movies are set to hit the upcoming Hallmark movie list, providing holiday cheer from October through December. We already know a bunch of the great titles coming to the 2025 Christmas movie schedule, but some people connected to Hallmark may not be feeling the spirit, as the network has enacted layoffs.
It’s definitely not the most wonderful time of the year for the 30 employees whose jobs were eliminated August 20. A spokesperson for Hallmark released a statement about the layoffs, which said, per Deadline:
As the industry continues to traverse a significant period of transformation, Hallmark is taking steps to transition our workforce to meet the needs of the business today. This means an ongoing exploration of specific roles and functions. While these decisions are never easy, we have eliminated 30 roles across multiple areas of the organization and have restructured parts of our business with the goal of investing in capabilities that will propel our business into the future.
While most of the eliminated positions were not specified, the layoffs impacted at least one executive — Jimmy Holcomb, Hallmark Media’s Vice President of Production. The move comes just weeks after former programming exec Michelle Vicary — who helped establish Hallmark Channel and its mystery and drama channels, as well as popular series like When Calls the Heart — was rehired after three years as the head of programming for all of Hallmark’s content platforms.
In other changes, the network’s headquarters are also relocating from Studio City to Burbank, and in May, Hallmark ended its streaming partnership with Peacock, which allowed those with a Peacock subscription to access some of the movies and TV series. The network also seems to be leaning into its reality TV era, which some fans have mixed feelings about.
Layoffs are certainly never fun to read about, but hopefully this news won’t put too much of a damper on what’s still to come on the 2025 TV schedule. Hallmark queen Lacey Chabert has a couple of movies in the works for later this year — Haul Out the Halloween, which is the third movie in her Haul Out series, and She’s Making a List alongside Andrew Walker.
We’ve also got another Holiday Touchdown movie coming — this one celebrating the Buffalo Bills — and we’re reportedly getting a third Three Wise Men flick as well.
Hallmark announced it’s also trying something new this holiday season with a Christmas-themed limited series. The book-to-screen adaptation The Twelve Dates of Christmas will star Parenthood’s Mae Whitman, Battlestar Galactica’s Mary McDonnell and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman’s Jane Seymour.
Lots of changes are happening at Hallmark, and unfortunately that meant the loss of 30 jobs. Hopefully that won’t have a negative impact on the Countdown to Christmas and other holiday programming. Keep an eye out for this season’s schedule, which should be coming soon.
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