Is GAC Family trying to re-create the less-inclusive Hallmark Channel of the past?

Vulture

The recently rebranded cable network -- which first gained mainstream attention for giving Lori Loughlin her first post-college cheating scandal acting role -- is the brainchild of Bill Abbott, who stepped down as Hallmark Channel boss in January 2020 shortly after the cable network received criticism for airing and then pulling an ad featuring brides kissing. As Josef Adalian notes, GAC Family "has the backing of an investor group with ties to former president Donald Trump (and) appears to be positioning itself as a destination for viewers who think Hallmark holiday movies are too edgy." Abbott, Adalian points out, had a "go-slow approach to diversifying the network’s extremely vanilla programming — at a time when most other platforms were pushing to expand inclusion efforts...After keeping a low public profile (and no doubt waiting for the pandemic to ease), Abbott re-emerged earlier this year when he teamed with investment firm Hicks Equity Partners and others to buy two small cable channels, Great American Country and the horse-centric Ride TV. Operating under the banner of GAC Media, the networks have been renamed GAC Family and GAC Living, with the former being positioned as basically Hallmark Channel 2.0: family-friendly fare, lots of focus on holidays, and this year, a dozen Christmas movies, of which 11— or about 92 percent — revolve around lead characters who are white (though there is more diversity among supporting characters)." As Adalian notes, "on its website, GAC Media announced that the company’s mission is to 'celebrate great American traditions and invest in timeless, family-friendly entertainment that honors Americana' with 'content that captures American culture, lifestyle, and heritage.' And in a press release, Abbott said he hoped the networks would 'deliver on the promise of safe and entertaining storytelling.' There’s nothing novel or even problematic about a TV channel appealing to patriotism or using America in its branding: GAC stood for Great American Country long before Abbott arrived, and one of the country’s oldest cable channels is called USA Network. But in a post-Trump country, other parts of the GAC messaging, such as the use of 'American culture' and 'heritage,' could be interpreted as trying to curry favor with supporters of the MAGA movement — particularly when the channel using that language is backed by a major Trump supporter and operated by a man who left Hallmark in the wake of a controversy over gay people expressing love...But here’s where things get tricky. While there may be reasons to be suspicious about GAC’s future plans and goals, so far it is hard to argue the network is going full-on MAGA the way a Newsmax or OANN have done in the news space. There are no movies about woke mobs seeking out the baby Jesus or tales about transgender atheists demanding the cancellation of Christmas. And while all but one of the channel’s 12 movies this year revolve around white, straight characters, that by itself is not evidence GAC won’t be more diverse in 2022, when it will have had months — not weeks — to put together a slate of movies. Right now, what Abbott and GAC are most guilty of is opting against originality in favor of trying to clone the Hallmark template: As soon as GAC was a go, the exec immediately began hiring former Hallmark execs and cutting deals with Hallmark producers and onscreen talent...Still, it is worth noting here that Abbott is trying to recreate the Hallmark Channel DNA at the exact same time Hallmark is slowly and methodically looking to evolve by being more diverse and inclusive, both in its programming and its exec suites. Abbott was replaced as president and CEO by Wonya Lucas, a Black woman."