Hallmark Christmas Movie Franchise Moving to Great American Family Network

A sequel to the 2020 Hallmark Channel movie The Christmas Waltz is in development, but at its rival Great American Family Network. Former Glee star Matthew Morrison and Days of Our Lives veteran Jen Lilley will headline the new movie, which moves the setting to Paris. The move comes as the rivalry between the two networks heats up.

Paris Christmas Waltz was filmed in location and takes viewers to "the magic of the city's most iconic destinations." The story starts with Emma (Lilley) giving up her job so a colleague with a family can keep his. She meets professional dancer Leo (Morrison), whose interest in competitive dance is waning. When Leo is presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Emma and Leo work together to impress Paris' dance community.

Michael Damian and Janeed Damian, who were behind the 2020 movie, will produce the sequel, reports Deadline. The couple has worked on 17 original made-for-TV movies together. They were all directed by Michael, a former star on The Young and The Restless, except for the Lindsay Lohan-starring Falling for Christmas and Irish Wish, which Janeed directed. Michael will direct Paris Christmas Waltz.

Paris Christmas Waltz will air during Great American Family Network's Great American Christmas event, which starts on Oct. 21. New holiday movies premiere on Saturdays and Sundays during the event, which will continue through the end of the year. Brad Krevoy, Amy Krell, Jimmy Townsend, and Lorenzo Nardini are executive producing with the Damians.

The original Christmas Waltz was among the highest-rated holiday films of 2020. That movie starred Lacey Chabert as a woman dumped by her fiance just before her perfect Christmas wedding. She still decides to take the ballroom lessons she planned for her wedding dance, and falls in love with her instructor, played by Will Kemp.

Chabert is not involved in the sequel since she chose to stand by Hallmark, amid the fallout from Candace Cameron Bure's controversial Wall Street Journal interview. In that November 2022 interview, the former Full House star said she joined Great American Family Network because Hallmark was a "completely different network than when I started because of the change of leadership." She added that the GAC Media executives are "Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment." Bure, who also became GAC MEdia's chief content officer, said she didn't think GAC movies would feature same-sex couples.

While Bure rejected Hallmark's changes, Chabert openly embraced them. "I'll never abandon what Hallmark means for me, which is that everything is centered around the heart. I don't think there are any plans for that to change anytime soon," she told Vulture in December. In February 2022, the Mean Girls star signed a two-year overall deal with Hallmark Channel parent Crown Media Family Networks to star in and executive produce future projects.

In response to the blowback from her interview, Bure said she has "great love and affection for all people" and did not intend to "offend or hurt" anyone. She went on to blame the media for creating "flames of conflict and hate."

"I had also expressed in my interview, which was not included, that people of all ethnicities and identities have and will continue to contribute to the network in great ways both in front of and behind the camera, which I encourage and fully support," Bure wrote in November 2022. "I've never been interested in proselytizing through my storytelling, but in celebrating God's greatness in our lives through the stories I tell."