Michelle Vicary is returning to Hallmark, this time as head of programming. In her new role, the longtime exec will oversee all production and original programming across Hallmark’s content platforms.
Vicary was part of Hallmark’s media business since its inception. After serving multiple positions, she exited the company as executive VP of programming in 2021 after 22 years at the company.
During her tenure, she spearheaded some of the most successful series and films for the company, including “When Calls the Heart,” “Good Witch,” and “Chesapeake Shores.”
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Vicary expanded the company’s commitment to diverse storytelling, hiring multiple LGBTQ+ actors and greenlighting movies like “Wedding Every Weekend” and “The Christmas House,” 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’s “Christmas in Evergreen” film franchise, and the network’s first-ever unscripted series, “Meet the Peetes.” The hire comes at the perfect time as the company delves further into unscripted storytelling with “Finding Mr. Christmas,” “Celebrations With Lacey Chabert,” “Baked With Love: Holiday” and more to come.
Vicary 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.
Kristin Chenoweth and Michelle Vicary arrive at a screening for “A Christmas Love Story” in 2019.
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As she reenters Hallmark now, four years after her exit, it’s 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.
“We 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,” says Abbott. The fandom element is something they are leaning into heavily for the first time — 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. “You’re going to hear us talk less and less about our individual outputs or operating units. It’s not just about the greeting card business or our movie business. It’s about the Hallmark brand, and how we are tying all of those things together in really unique ways.”
As the brand continues to grow and partner with massive brands like the NFL, the team is focusing on how the brand’s DNA can also be represented in other genres.
“The Hallmark brand is a brand for all people, and we always have been. It is at the foundation of who we are, so we’re 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,” says Abbott. “That was important to Michelle, it’s important to me. That is part of the Hallmark brand. You can’t be a brand about connecting people if you’re not for all people, and so at the end of the day, that’s really important to us — whether it’s in the products we sell, the movies we make or the experiences that we’re creating.”
Additionally, no one knows how to tell a Christmas story like Vicary, who was part of the creation of “Countdown to Christmas” in 2010.
“In 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,” says Abbott. “She was really the missing piece of the puzzle, I think, around the way I’m thinking about the brand.”
Although the team has only recently begun really leaning into the experiential side of the business, Vicary saw it years ago. In 2019, she told Variety: “What we’ve 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’t just like what we do, they thank us for it.”
