Over the last several months, a slew of Hallmark stars have transitioned to taking on roles or even overall deals at rival network GAC Family. Bill Abbott, who formerly ran Hallmark Channel’s parent company Crown Media Family Networks, has coaxed some of the network’s biggest names like Danica McKellar over to the new channel. But it seems the ladies on both networks are still super supportive of one another, after Hallmark star Lacey Chabert and more reached out to Candace Cameron Bure following her own big news.
In a post, Candace Cameron Bure confirmed that she has signed a new overall deal with GAC Family. Intriguingly, this won’t necessarily mean she’ll completely exit Hallmark. Reports indicate her deal with GAC Family is for Christmas movies and more, but she may be able to continue with Aurora Teagarden movies on Hallmark’s sister channel Movies and Mysteries. On her Instagram, Bure simply confirmed reports, writing:
Excited to join the GAC TV and GAC Living 📺 family!
Generally, Candace Cameron Bure is all over Instagram Stories when there is big news, so this was a surprisingly short response about her big career shift. Regardless, she received a lot of support from some of her Hallmark and formerly Hallmark co-stars, including the aforementioned Chabert, who actually just signed a new deal with Hallmark. Thus it seems there are not hard feelings over the actress’ choice to try holiday movies elsewhere.
In fact, two of the stars of Hallmark’s recent trio of films The Wedding Veil reached out, with Lacey Chabert noting “congratulations” and her co-star Alison Sweeney sending the abbreviated “congrats.” Intriguingly, some Hallmark defectors also commented, with Danica McKellar giving Candace Cameron Bure a warm welcome to the GAC fold, writing, “Yayayay!!!! Welcome to the family, my friend!!” And Jen Lilley sent some emojis along with the excited exclamation, “Ah!!!!!!”
So, it seems that even if there are a bunch of people leaving Hallmark For GAC (and that’s just the tip of the iceberg as Cindy Busby --who also commented with emojis -- has done a GAC movie, Cameron Mathison shifted over after his Hallmark show was canceled and so on and so forth), there’s still positivity even coming from the stars who are sticking with the original network. After all, if some of the mainstays leave Hallmark that should give some new names the chance to shine.
Meanwhile, a statement from Bure when the news was announced spoke about the “faith-based” programming the actress is hoping to produce for the network.
I’m very excited to develop heartwarming family and faith-filled programming and make the kind of stories my family and I love to watch. I am constantly looking for ways that I can inspire people to live life with purpose. GAC fits my brand perfectly; we share a vision of creating compelling wholesome content for an audience who wants to watch programming for and with the whole family. Great, quality entertainment with a positive message is what my partnership with GAC is all about!
Hallmark has seen a number of stars leave for the new channel, but the shift in talent is not the only shift Hallmark has seen recently. The network has also pushed to include LGBTQ+ friendly movies and characters and more diverse romances over the past couple of years, following its first foray into LGBTQ+ characters in Wedding Every Weekend in 2020.
