#foxnation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sleepykittypaws · 1 year

Text

Best and Worst of 2022

Remember last year when I thought 183 new Christmas movies were too many?

Well, the joke is most definitely on me, because this year there were so many more. 243 to be exact, a 33% year-over-year increase, and that's just across broadcast, cable and streaming. If you add in new holiday titles available via digital purchase/rental, DVD and/or theatrical-only, the total jumps to 316 all-new Christmas movie offerings for 2022, the bulk of which premiered in the final 9 weeks of the year, across a record 53 linear networks and streaming platforms (see below).

Hallmark-43

Lifetime-26

Tubi-21

Netflix-14

GAF-14

UPtv-12

Hulu-10

BET/BET+-10

Prime Video-6

HBOMax-5

Crackle-5

PureFlix-5

ION-4

VH1-4

Discovery+-4

FoxNation-4

CBS-3

AMC+-3

UPFaith&Fam-3

Roku-3

Freevee-3

ViX+-3

TVOne-2

OWN-2

Showtime-2

Starz-2

Shudder-2

Xumo-2

Vudu-2

NBC-1

CW-1

Bounce-1

Paramount Network-1

Comedy Central-1

Cartoon Network-1

Nick-1

LMN-1

BYU TV-1

AppleTV+-1

Disney+-1

Epix-1

Britbox-1

Pluto-1

Plex-1

Pantaya-1

Chicken Soup for the Soul-1

OctaneTV-1

DivaBoxOfficeTV-1

Full Moon Features-1

Arrow-1

Fandor-1

QVC+-1

TBN-1

Amidst all that content we got some real gems. Not only did I watch more new movies than ever before—in large part because my kids told me they were getting too old for our annual animated special advent calendar (sob)—and once again ranked them in real-time as I did so, but found more I loved than ever before, too.

After 2021 saw zero made-for-TV movies I felt were truly "four paw" worthy, this season saw 3 debuts that I felt strongly enough to include in my all-time favorites list, the most since 2018, and a record 11 movies that I'd give my personal highest 🐾🐾🐾🐾 rating to.

Since I never, ever strived to watch everything new, even when there was a lot less of it, my picks below aren't meant to be the unequivocal best or worst of all that’s out there, just the new holiday fare I managed to sample this season. And even though I watched almost no non-festive content from November 6-December 25 that was still only a drop in the bucket considering the absolute avalanche of Christmas content that now drops annually.

Since I only watch what I hope to enjoy, there's a whole lot of holiday dreck never even considered sampling, as well as plenty of stuff I was interested in that I just never found time for. But of what I did watch in 2022, here's what I liked most, and least this holiday season…

Best Made-for-TV Holiday Movie

With the trips to theater more rare than they were pre-2020, and streaming services having more widely varying budgets than your average cable channel's "movie of the week" model, this category can be a little hard to contain, as it's not really fair to compare even a mid-budget streaming title with shot-in-15-days Hallmark fare, but for my head-to-head comparison purposes this category consists, broadly, of movies with a no more than a 7-figure budget, and shooting schedule of a month or less.

There are definite quality variations within that range—you will for sure notice the budget differences between a $1 million and $6 million production, or 10 versus 25-day shoot—but it at least feels fair to rank those movies against each other, rather than, say, the $100,000,000 estimated production of something like Spirited.

My favorite of the season ended up being not only my first watch of the year, but one that had premiered in 2021 in the U.K.. The Sky original, A Christmas No. 1 (a.k.a. A Christmas Number One), which quietly made its U.S. debut on Tubi in early November. Starring Frieda Pinto and Iwan Rheon, the story of a music exec desperate for a holiday hit, and a musician who doesn't want to sell his song to her cheesy boy band, took turns I wasn't expecting based on that basic premise. Knowing little going in probably helped sell this one for me, as did the high-caliber acting, some genuine laughs, and really good original music. Not without its own well-worn formula, A Christmas No. 1 just felt so much more like a "real movie" than your typical U.S. made-for-TV holiday title, even if they were awkwardly attempting to hide Pinto’s obvious real-life pregnancy.

My second-favorite of the season was also somewhat unexpected.

VH1 entered the holiday movie fray in 2021, with forgettable results in terms of both ratings and quality, not to mention the baffling decision not to stream titles on Viacom-owned Paramount+, so was somewhat surprised to see them putting out more movies in 2022, but they finally made a good one in All I Didn't Want for Christmas, one of the few VH1 holiday titles that didn't rely on existing VH1/MTV talent and/or IP.

Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe was fantastic as a woman frustrated with her stagnating life and career who writes Santa a drunken letter, Loretta Devine great as her well-meaning, but overbearing, mom and Kel Mitchell charming as the elf sent to help her. All I Didn’t Want for Christmas was funny, heartfelt and a truly original ride.

Sidibe has fantastic comedic timing and this story offered a rare fresh take on a classic Christmas set-up. A shame that just as they're finding their Christmas movie feet, VH1, which underwent a massive corporate shake-up in early November, is unlikely to produce any further originals. Glad we at least got this gem and hope to see Sidibe in more holiday movies.

No. 3 on my list is Hallmark's big swing, Three Wise Men and a Baby, starring Andrew Walker, Tyler Hynes and Paul Campbell, who also co-wrote the script with Kimberley Sustad.

This was a laugh-out-loud funny comedy that even cleverly carried over Margaret Colin, here playing the adult sons' mom, from its Three Men and a Baby inspiration. Just a joyful holiday watch that both played with the Hallmark formula and reveled in it.

Others worthy of extra mention from Hallmark, Hannukah on Rye, their first truly good Hanukkah romance (to my mind anyway), the almost-great Ghosts of Christmas Always, which I enjoyed very much as is, but could have been an all-timer with a different ending, and Hallmark's first-ever lead, same-sex holiday romance, The Holiday Sitter.

In just a few years Hallmark has gone from a network whose fare I found ever more bland and uninteresting, to dominating my top 10 of the season list. Every one of which I would, by the way, wholeheartedly recommend to fellow Christmas movie fans.

A Christmas No. 1, Tubi

All I Didn't Want for Christmas, VH1

Three Wise Men and a Baby, Hallmark

Hanukkah on Rye, Hallmark

Haul out the Holly, Hallmark

Ghosts of Christmas Always, Hallmark

Falling for Christmas, Netflix

Reindeer Games Homecoming, Lifetime

Lights, Camera, Christmas!, Hallmark

The Holiday Sitter, Hallmark

Worst Made-for-TV Holiday Movie

It wasn't all accolades for Hallmark. A Holiday Spectacular was reportedly Hallmark's most expensive movie ever, and while it looked relatively lush, filming in the real-life Radio City Music Hall and filled with period cars and costumes, the whitewashing of the Rockettes’ shameful racial history more than just took me out of the story, it ended up making me actively angry.

Hallmark has made so much progress in the past three seasons, to see them running cover for what was once called “one of the most racist organizations in American entertainment,” made me queasy.

Discovery+ started making holiday originals in 2021, and their first effort, Candy-Coated Christmas, was one of my least favorite movies of the year. This year they delivered four originals, and while I had higher hopes given the talent involved, bowed out of two others before (barely) making it through Designing Christmas. A charming cast really couldn't save this very rote, and oddly infomercial-feeling, home design story, that felt like you were watching an extended commercial for other HGTV programming.

As Hallmark rises in my estimation, Lifetime falls. Once a reliable provider of my holiday favorites, Lifetime's last three seasons have been subpar, at best, with this being their worst-ever. Stopped watching so many of their movies this year, eventually just gave up on the network altogether. Only Reindeer Games Homecoming stood out as being worthy of what was once my holiday go-to network. Even their marquee movies with bigger stars no longer provide a reasonable expectation of quality. Didn't make it much past the 15-minute mark for either A Christmas Spark or Santa Bootcamp, despite strong casts, and while I watched all of Steppin' Into the Holiday, couldn't exactly tell you why, since the Mario Lopez-Jana Kramer joint was painfully lifeless and ultimately dumb, as well as boring.

Netflix also had some real clunkers this season, including Christmas with You. I was really looking forward to the streamer giving us a bigger budget, Latino holiday story, but should have known when they changed the name from Christmas Quinceanera to something this boring, the movie would follow suit. Chemistry free, nonsensical story with lifeless performances from usually charming leads. Snooze.

Best Theatrical Holiday Movie

This category could more accurately be called “bigger budget,” as higher-end streaming productions tend to dominate this category now. Though most of my 2022 faves did get a theatrical run, that’s just not where I personally saw them. And, as I said in the made-for-TV category, as streaming originals start to dominate the Christmas movie conversation, the distinction between what is "made-for-TV" and what's "theatrical" can start to feel a bit arbitrary, especially when you're comparing movies that cost $100 million to make, with those that filmed for $10 million, but still far exceed a typical Hallmark or Lifetime movie-of-the-week budget.

In total, I saw 10 holiday movies this year that I think mostly fit into the "theatrical" category, even if only half of them played in theaters. (Being the homebody I am, I saw them all from my sofa.)

Spirited

Violent Night

This is Christmas, Sky/Epix

Your Christmas or Mine?, Prime Video

Something from Tiffany's, Prime Video

About Fate

Spoiler Alert

Bar Fight, AMC+

A Christmas Story Christmas, HBO Max

The Noel Diary, Netflix

Spirited was not only my favorite of the season, but one of the best modern musicals I've seen. Watched it twice this year, and anticipate it becoming a regular part of my annual Christmas movie rota, as it's already one of my all-time favorites.

The unexpectedly entertaining Violent Night brings together gruesomely cartoonish violence (not usually my thing), humor and Christmas cheer in a completely unique package, despite it cribbing from, and even actually name-checking, so many other holiday classics—altogether an extraordinary and impressive feat. Think David Harbour can now claim the definitive world-weary Santa with a heart of gold portrayal, at least in my book.

British charmers This is Christmas and Your Christmas or Mine? were both sweet, lovely and a true cut above the made-for-TV fare we usually get on this side of the pond.

This is Christmas, like my made-for-TV favorite, A Christmas No. 1, was a Sky TV original in the UK, but it's slightly bigger budget (as a co-production), and same-day U.S. debut, slipped it into the "theatrical" category for me.

Your Christmas or Mine? had a fantastically fun premise—college students in love each decide to jump off their respective trains home to surprise the other for the holidays, only to each be stuck with the other's families instead—that wasn't pulled off quite as well as I'd hoped, but was still lovely and fun, with a great cast.

Also mostly liked About Fate. The New Year's-set remake of Soviet classic, The Irony of Fate, wasn't perfect, but Thomas Mann and Emma Roberts are winning enough to make it work, and I can definitely see myself watching this again in the future.

Even the middling Bar Fight had its moments, thanks mostly to its great, game cast—and that it wasn't a romance (the opposite, as it's a break-up movie) was a refreshing holiday twist.

Worst Theatrical Holiday Movie

So, that leaves my picks for “worst” as the mundane, fan service-laden A Christmas Story Christmas, which made little sense and had far too little of the humor and heartfelt moments that has made the original a lasting classic.

But even worse than that mostly dull sequel was The Noel Diary, which has convinced me that Richard Paul Evans isn't just the Nicolas Sparks of Christmas movies, they might be one in the hacky same. Poorly edited, woodenly acted, and a plot so dumb it made me want to throw things at the screen. Not quite bad enough to be "fun bad," but very bad indeed.

Best Stealth Christmas Movie

Bily Eichner’s big screen, R-rated rom-com Bros was my favorite rom-com of the year, and it's pivotal Christmas scenes, plus constant name-checking of "Hallheart" movies, makes it a stealth Christmas movie.

If you’re unfamiliar with the genre, that’s what I call a movie set during the Christmas season, or containing key holiday scenes, that isn’t specifically thought of as a Christmas film.

The holiday heavy Spoiler Alert, and more lightly holiday The Good House, which has significant Thanksgiving and Christmas scenes, are also well worth a watch.

Worst Stealth Christmas Movie

I must pick The King's Man. Yes, it came out in late 2021, but I watched it in 2022, and this franchise spin off is awful enough for its Christmas-scented stench to pollute two years. Even the lesser-than Kingsman sequel looks like a masterpiece next to this dreck.

Best Animated Holiday Special

Apple is doing a fantastic job preserving Charlie Brown’s legacy, and this year's new holiday shorts collection Happiness is a Gift Worth Giving, part of season 2 of The Snoopy Show, are absolutely in line with the heart and soul of the original Peanuts specials.

Honorable mention to the Autumn of Mickey Mouse, the latest in Disney's series of retro-look, seasonal specials that, like The Snoopy Show, really hew to the original ethos of the characters and all are smart, funny and sweet.

In case anyone wants to be a stickler and not count either of the above for being, respectively, not-Christmas centered, or part of an animated series, CBS gave us the amiable Reindeer in Here which was an original story with a good message, that I can see being added to many family’s annual rotations. Far from groundbreaking, it was still a pleasant, festive watch.

Worst Animated Holiday Special

Cannot say the same for the much more popular, Mickey Saves Christmas, which ran on ABC and striped across the Disney Channels and is now on Disney+. The story is almost non-existent, and even the animation seemed sub-par, a mix between low-budget computer generation and stop-motion.

Little kids liked it enough to make it pop in the ratings even after endless repeat airings, so I'm sure we'll see it again and again forever, but Disney knows how to do this so much better, and it feels like they just didn't bother here.

Best Live Action Holiday Special

We go from something Disney did poorly, to something they did quite well, the Marvel one-off Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. This James Gunn-written and produced mini-movie was so much fun, and even gave us two great new original songs for the holiday canon.

Did Chris Pratt frequently look like he’d rather be anywhere else? Sure, but Mantis and Drax’s capture of a very game Kevin Bacon more than made up for Pratt’s pout.

Honorable mentions here to Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery. The improvised offshoot of Will Arnett’s Netflix series paired the comedian with his Smartless podcast partners Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes, as well as Maya Rudolph.

It's very silly, often veering into stupid, but I laughed a lot. Would probably have liked it even more if not for the third act Pete Davidson appearance. Luckily, Davidson did very little. Per usual.

Also enjoyed Showtime’s tongue-in-cheek Matt Rogers: Have You Heard of Christmas? This parody of an old-fashioned musical holiday special, featured Rogers singing hits from his fictional holiday album. A good enough singer to make the comedy songs work, Rogers has impeccable timing and style, and between this special and Fire Island, as well as his hit podcast Las Culturistas, had one heck of a 2022.

Worst Live Action Holiday Special

Disney’s streaming original Best in Snow was a weird combination of competition and storyline. While this could have been interesting as strictly a snow building competition, Titus Burgess' commitment to his weird “mayor” character, a handful of seemingly unrelated animated segments, and truly bizarre pacing made this a mish-mash that simply did not work.

Best Holiday Series

The past few seasons have left us spoiled for choice when it comes to holiday series. This season saw a dearth of new, specifically holiday-set series to explore—with the caveat that I never quite found time for Per-Olav Sørensen's Storm for Christmas on Netflix—but season two of Starstruck, the lovely British rom-com on HBO Max, both incorporated the holidays and was one of my favorite watches of the year.

Worst Holiday Series

The Disney+ series sequel to the The Santa Clause movie trilogy, The Santa Clauses, was unfunny, unfestive and absolutely unnecessary. This tired Tim Allen vehicle filled with “jokes” sourced straight from Fox News held no appeal, even though I slogged through two episodes hoping it would get better.

The Santa Clauses has already been renewed for season, so clearly people are watching, but to say this isn’t my cup of cocoa is putting it lightly, so to feel free to pencil season two in as my worst of 2023 already.

Best Holiday Reality Series

FOX’s Lego Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular paired past LEGO Masters players with celebs competing for charity for a fun family watch that, at just four episodes over three nights (two regular episodes, and a double-length finale), didn’t have time to wear out its welcome.

And, though it wasn't as prominent a tribute as I'd hoped and expected, it was also still very nice to see Leslie Jordan being his hilarious, amazing, and charming self, one last time, following his untimely October death.

Worst Holiday Reality Series

Silos Baking Competition: Holiday Edition, on HBO Max, is the latest entry in the constant self-promotional churn of the insufferable Chip and Joanna Gaines, who I don’t recall hating before they turned themselves into a 24/7 brand. This dull as dishwater "competition" was a basic retread of better baking shows and barely even qualified as Christmas-y, despite the title.

Best Holiday TV Episode of an Ongoing Series

Abbott Elementary is the best show on traditional broadcast TV, and their “Holiday Hookah” episode delivered a sweet, holiday tale that also pushed forward major ongoing plot points, like the will they/won't they flirtation between Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams, with Janelle James predictably stealing the show.

Worst Holiday TV Episode of an Ongoing Series

Animation voice work is clearly a sweet celebrity gig, so I don't blame folks like Lisa Kudrow, Clea DeVall and Nat Faxon for cashing the checks, but both new Housebroken holiday episodes on FOX, my first brush with the series, left me seriously underwhelmed. Lots of poop "humor" and exceedingly little heart, even in what should be the most sentimental effort(s) of the season. Sad that so many talented people are making something so uninspired.

Felt like there were fewer holiday series episodes in general than in year’s past, probably in part due to smaller season orders leaving less time for holiday hijinks.

Best Christmas Advert

Watching these bite-size servings of holiday joy has long been a part of our family’s Christmas tradition. We now have a fairly well established list that we revisit annually, just like any other beloved Christmas special. Though there were plenty of note, overall 2022 seemed like a lesser year for the corporate Christmas mini-movie, though there was at least one that made me sob like a baby…“El Ruso de Rocky,” from Spanish company J&B, shows a grandfather modeling acceptance in the most selfless, nurturing way possible.

Honorable mention to Kroger’s Up inspired “The Magical Cookbook,” which poignantly captured the connection between holiday meals and memories.

Worst Christmas Advert

Old Navy’s endless variations on their hyperkinetic “Matchy Matchy” ads were a true waste of the great Jennifer Coolidge. But good for her for getting that holiday green, though.

Best New Christmas Song

2022 wasn’t quite as quite as strong a year for new holiday tunes as 2021, but I still found plenty to add to my ever-growing "Christmas Favorites" playlist.

“Night Before Christmas,” Sam Smith

“Here it is Christmastime,” Kevin Bacon and the Old 97′s

“The More You Give (The More You’ll Have),” Michael Buble (Listen, the man has an endless well of holiday originals inside of him, and will release one annually till the earth's core melts)

“I Don’t Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here),” the Old 97′s

“Almost Too Early for Christmas,” Dolly Parton and Jimmy Fallon (Is it unbearably cheesy? Sure. But, c’mon, it’s Dolly)

“12 nights,” Sia

“Snow in L.A.,” Noah Cyrus and PJ Harding

“So Much Wine,” Phoebe Bridgers

"This is Christmas,” Annelise Cepero (Didn’t see Holiday Harmony, but the song ended up in my playlist anyway.)

“Naughty and Nice,” Sia

With an honorable mention to the new-to-me music from A Christmas No. 1, especially “Christmas Morning,” in both its Iwan Rheon acoustic and Scurve versions, which were probably the tunes I actually listened to most this season.

Worst New Christmas Song

Jeff Goldblum’s “The Christmas Waltz” felt like a parody where he wasn’t in on the joke, unlike his much better, actual parody holiday gig.

Best New Christmas Album

Spirited was the soundtrack I just couldn’t stop humming. Hard to pick just one standout, but did I dance around singing "That Christmas Morning Feelin'" into a candy cane on December 25th to the embarrassment of my family? 100%. And I regret nothing.

Worst New Christmas Album

Alicia Keys’ Santa Baby, while not terrible by any means, was a disappointment. I expected a standout from someone with as powerful a presence as Keys. The original, "December Back 2 June," was meh, and the standards didn't really stick either. A very ho-hum effort from a singer who is usually anything but.

Best Holiday Book

Lindsay Kelk’s cozy and romantic The Christmas Wish was my favorite holiday read of 2022. Sweet with just enough edge to make this Groundhog Day take interesting. (And, yes, my 2021 favorite read was another stuck-in-a-Christmas-time-loop tale, Holidazed, so guess I have a type.)

Best Holiday Podcast

Going to sound like a bit of a broken record here, because while the hosts changed, my holiday favorite podcast did not. Deck the Hallmark continues to be my holiday listening go-to, maybe because they put out so much content I don’t have time to try and tackle anything else 😝

Of course, always make time for the ladies of All the Feels and their holiday movie bracket, as well as Alonso Duralde’s “Christmas Movie Minute” on Maximum Film.

Favorite New-to-Me Holiday Content

With so much new this season, didn’t get to sample too much I’d missed from the past, but Hallmark’s 2020 Project Christmas Wish, starring Amanda Schull and Travis Van Winkle, was one of the more actually romantic Hallmark romances of recent years. We got to see the characters fall in love, rather than just go from "hating" each other to "being in love" in an instant. Just a well-done entry in the genre I’m happy to have caught up with.

Top 10 Non-Holiday Movies of 2022

Glass Onion, A Knives Out Story, Netflix

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Hulu

Hustle, Netflix

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Bros

The Sea Beast, Netflix

Top Gun: Maverick

Confess, Fletch

The Valet, Hulu

The Good House

Though there are plenty of awards contenders still haven’t managed to see, making this list subject to future amendment, Rian Johnson’s return to the world of Benoit Blanc was smart, funny and a whole lot of fun to watch.

Top 15 Non-Holiday TV Series of 2022

Trying, Apple TV+

Hacks, HBO Max

Derry Girls, Netflix

Starstruck, HBO Max

Peacemaker, HBO Max

Heartstopper, Netflix

Reservation Dogs, Hulu

From Scratch, Netflix

Barry, HBO Max

Julia, HBO Max

The Crown, Netflix

This is Going to Hurt, AMC+

Reboot, Hulu

Single Drunk Female, FX

Abbott Elementary, ABC

As with movies, there are a long list of series I still need to catch up on, but even with those viewing blind spots, could easily have made a list twice this long with shows I really loved (for instance, ran out of room for things like my beloved Never Have I Ever, and very good The Best Man: The Final Chapters), but no show made me laugh, or cry, more regularly in 2022 than Apple’s absolutely brilliant Trying. By the way, Trying’s regular director, Jim O'Hanlon, also made Your Christmas or Mine?

Worst Non-Holiday Movie/TV of 2022

No movie I watched all the way through in 2022 stunk worse than Netflix’s execrable Purple Hearts. The reason I kept watching is because I mistook it for the kind of cheesy, sentimental military romance I usually kind of enjoy, instead of the just plain awful, poorly acted and seriously stupid story it actually was. Literally laughed out loud at the ending. If it was slightly less polished, this one almost tips over into The Room-like cringe that could make it almost fun, but, alas.

In bad TV, Hillary Swank’s achingly earnest Alaska Daily, with its bonkers depiction of journalism-ing and overwhelming white savior narrative, made my eyes roll so often I thought I might have sprained something.

Favorite Advent Calendar

Those who follow me on Twitter, know I have a slight advent calendar obsession, particularly beauty advent calendars, so now that I’ve opened my [redacted number] of 2022 calendars, thought I’d share my favorite of the season…The 12 Days of Harrod’s Fragrance calendar contained several bottles that were each worth more than the calendar’s cost. No tiny samples here, all purse size or larger, truly high-end scents to more than sample, simply but beautifully packaged.

Honorable mention to my favorite beauty calendars, which included the companion 25 Days of Harrod’s Beauty and Liberty London, both of which featured a lot of seriously high-end skincare products, many of them full size.

And while I’m not sure I would want to monetize my Christmas movie musings, even if I could, I am open to anyone who wants to send me luxury beauty advent calendars to review in 2023 😜

Best Holiday Network

Hallmark Channel has gone from my worst to first in just three years. Their new Peacock ad-free availability meant I watched more of their movies than ever before, and they were mostly quite good.

Hallmark's newfound diversity, forged under new leadership, not only in casting, but storytelling too, means that the 43 movies they made this year actually have distinct differences from one another, instead of identical copies of the same story retold every weekend of the season. It's a breath of a fresh air and, honestly, given the quality and quantity of the content, paired with increased streaming availability, there's probably never been a better time to be a Hallmark Christmas movie fan.

Worst Holiday Network

Great American Family spent most of the year not making movies—broadcasting from early February to the end of August with zero new or original content—instead opting to fiddle with their name, after realizing the acronym GAC sounded like a cat trying to get up a hairball, only to change it to GAF, which sounds like either a mistake (gaffe), or R-rated shorthand (as in IDGAF) that doesn’t seem in line with the network’s stated "faith, family and country” theme.

But naming confusion was just the tip of the iceberg for Great American Family’s issues, many of which were unforced errors, like CEO Bill Abbott calling convicted felon Lori Loughlin, "Someone who has a track record of doing the right thing in the world at large." and “America’s Sweetheart.”

To pulling one of their holiday movies just days after announcing it, saying it didn’t “meet their standards.” Or endlessly changing their Christmas schedule, which they claimed contained “18 originals,” but actually featured movies that had debuted years ago they renamed and passed off as new, as well as several that dropped on free streaming services before coming to GAF.

But GAF’s biggest, well, gaffe of the year came when Candace Cameron Bure accidentally said the quiet part out loud to the Wall Street Journal, and admitted Great American Family’s main mission was pretending queer people don’t exist—at least not in front of the camera. Of course, when everyone acted properly horrified by her hate speech, Cameron Bure blamed “the media” even though she’d been perfectly happy to repeatedly promote the WSJ story on her own social media…Right up until she realized it wasn't going well for her online.

The good news is that Great American Family’s ratings remain absolutely dismal. The network finished 103rd out of 159 Nielsen-tracked TV networks, averaging a meagre 79,000 viewers, behind every single other Christmas movie-making network. GAF’s so-called “signature franchise” Christmas movies averaged less than 225,000 viewers and a paltry .02 (that’s point 2) in the all-important 18-49 demographic. Their highest-rated movie to date, Christmas at the Drive-In, only managed 482,000 viewers and a .04 in the demo. Just all around disastrous ratings for an ad-based network that doesn’t even have On Demand or streaming options to boost their viewership.

Of course, rock bottom ratings didn’t keep Great American Family from rolling out a “Mission Accomplished” press release that, at best, fudged the stats.

With just 7% of Hallmark’s average viewership, it’s long past time for reporters to stop credulously reporting that GAF is Hallmark’s Christmas “competition.” And shout out to Decider’s Brett White for making that point with a lot of math.

Anyway, yeah, Bill Abbott, marketing genius.

Worst Holiday TV Trend

TOO MUCH! For real this time.

Since I felt the holiday movie pace was unsustainable at least 100 movies per year ago, won't make any predictions, but does seem hard to imagine how this exponential annual increase can keep going. As cable audiences dwindle, and streamers tighten their belts, we must, sooner or later, see the holiday movie machine contract.

Yes, these movies’ annual rewatchablity, relative low cost, and ad-placement-friendly subject matter is a big part of what made them so popular, and profitable, but at some point, we'll simply run out of places to put them all, not to mention more movies fighting for fewer eyeballs in an increasingly smaller marketplace.

Well, that’s a wrap on 2022!

As for me, since I've talked about abandoning this hobby turned unpaid part-time job for several seasons now, won't make any predications there either, but do know that while I'm still interested in the inner workings of the industry, as well as still personally enjoy watching Christmas content, trying to follow the now non-stop production is way, way too much for me to promise to keep up with. For updates and info you can visit me on Twitter at @sleepykittypaw if you wish, at least as long as that platform is around/usable.

But, no matter what 2023 brings, cheers to you and yours in the New Year, and know that next year’s holiday movies are already just around the corner.

2 notes · View notes