How do Lifetime and Hallmark keep Christmas movies fresh? By turning to picklers and pigskin

Whether you emotion them oregon loathe them, tv Christmas movies are a vacation play staple. The romance, the snowy landscapes, the perfectly decorated homes and the acquainted stories supply millions of viewers with comfortableness and joyousness successful December (and adjacent November for immoderate with a looser explanation of the vacation season).

Of course, immoderate of that comforting familiarity comes from the conventions that are present expected successful a web Christmas movie — for example, the thought of reconnecting with a precocious schoolhouse sweetheart, oregon the beingness of an older, bearded man who whitethorn oregon whitethorn not beryllium Santa Claus.

So erstwhile Hallmark and Lifetime movies commencement incorporating things similar pickleball and NFL players into their slates, it’s capable to crook immoderate heads.

Lifetime’s “A Pickleball Christmas” (premiering Saturday) and Hallmark’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story” (streaming present connected Hallmark+) each supply that caller hook into a Christmas tale, yet romance and the vacation tone stay astatine their cores.

A Christmas Day tourney successful which Luke (James Lafferty) and Caroline (Zibby Allen) vie is astatine the climax of Lifetime’s “A Pickleball Christmas.”

(Sydney Wong / Lifetime)

Cable tv movies are capable to capitalize connected trendy sports similar pickleball oregon buzzy teams similar the Bills due to the fact that of the breakneck gait astatine which they’re produced. Tapping into much niche scenarios, hobbies and sports teams allows the networks to invitation caller audiences in, portion keeping their loyal viewers satisfied with a interruption successful formula.

The thought for “A Pickleball Christmas” was calved retired of a South Pasadena pickleball club. Sami Ponoroff, elder manager of programming for Lifetime, is an avid subordinate and a subordinate of a nine called iPickle. She mentioned the thought of a pickleball vacation movie to a pro teacher there, Blake Rutledge. Lucky for them, Rutledge is besides a writer who had been moving connected a pickleball-related script.

From there, the 2 dove into development. It was “kismet” that they happened to conscionable done the athletics astatine the halfway of the movie, Ponoroff said. When Ponoroff initially brought the thought up to the movie’s eventual enforcement producer, Karen Glass, her archetypal thought said it all: “Of course, determination has to beryllium a pickleball Christmas movie.”

While determination are mentions of dinking and pickleball room rules successful the movie, you don’t request to beryllium acquainted with the athletics oregon its specifics to admit the story. Ponoroff credits Rutledge with creating a equilibrium betwixt giving pickleball fanatics what they privation portion not isolating non-players. Since helium teaches newcomers, helium knows however to present radical to the athletics well, she said.

The aforesaid is existent of “Holiday Touchdown.” While members of the Bills Mafia, arsenic the team’s instrumentality basal is called, volition admit the shots from Highmark Stadium and the galore cameos from some existent and erstwhile players and different Bills figures, adjacent viewers who basal for rival teams (or nary squad astatine all) mightiness find thing they like.

Samantha DiPippo, Hallmark’s elder vice president of programming, joked that determination was a concealed look to a Hallmark Christmas movie, 1 that she couldn’t reveal, but the cardinal to a Hallmark movie is the basal of romance. Referencing “Adventures successful Love & Birding,” a movie from earlier this twelvemonth that besides plays to the niche hobby of birding, she said the ground is “the communicative conscionable getting them through, right? That’s however we’re uncovering these 2 radical successful this movie autumn successful love.”

“Holiday Touchdown” is the 2nd movie to travel retired of Hallmark’s concern with the NFL — past year’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” was the first, which “kind of tapped into immoderate brainsick zeitgeist infinitesimal past year,” DiPippo said, referring to the frenzy implicit the narration betwixt Taylor Swift and Chiefs subordinate Travis Kelce. Kelce’s mother, Donna, adjacent made a cameo successful the movie.

But Hallmark’s NFL transportation is based connected acold much than buzzy relationships. DiPippo said astir 75% of Hallmark’s assemblage besides watches NFL games.

“People ticker with the aforesaid passion, whether they’re rooting connected their squad oregon watching a Hallmark movie, and truthful we wanted to pat into that and marque thing that feels genuinely bespoke for our Hallmark viewers, but besides NFL fans,” she said.

The writers and squad down the movie traveled to Buffalo aboriginal successful the accumulation process and “rooted ourselves successful each things Orchard Park and Buffalo and East Aurora to truly recognize what the fandom is up there,” DiPippo said. The Bills’ beardown play this twelvemonth has been “pretty fortuitous,” she added. “Maybe that’s the Hallmark Christmas magic, right? Get a movie and let’s spell to the playoffs.”

Lifelong Bills fans Gabe (Matthew Daddario) and Morgan (Holland Roden) find emotion successful Buffalo astatine Christmas.

(David Scott Holloway / Hallmark Media)

Approaching vacation slates with unsocial angles appears to beryllium moving for the networks. Hallmark vacation movies person reached 24 cardinal radical truthful acold this play and Lifetime saw much than 23 cardinal radical tune successful past year, according to information from Nielsen provided by the respective networks to The Times.

“We person a more, maybe, niche absorption — adjacent though it’s the fastest-growing athletics successful the U.S., it’s much of a niche absorption — but that becomes the hook that makes the communicative itself consciousness fresh,” Ponoroff said. “There’s evidently going to beryllium a romance successful it that mightiness consciousness familiar, but the satellite itself is new, and that blending of novelty and authenticity is what our audiences are responding to and coming to america for. Feeling similar their worlds, their community, what they’re truly engaged successful is being represented connected screen.”

While Ponoroff said she doesn’t spot immoderate signs of pickleball’s popularity slowing down anytime soon, and Bills fans volition ever beryllium around, Glass emphasized however the speedy accumulation works successful their favour successful this respect too. “A Pickleball Christmas” volition onshore with audiences conscionable a fewer months aft Apple TV announced it was adding a pickleball comedy, “The Dink,” from Josh Greenbaum and Ben Stiller to its upcoming slate.

“You person an idea, and you tin beryllium successful accumulation successful a month,” she said. “It’s a small spot easier successful the TV movie abstraction to link to trends due to the fact that the process is truthful overmuch faster.”

Having a crisp oculus for what inclination radical volition link to is conscionable portion of the job, Ponoroff said. “You person a hunch, you person a gut feeling, you benignant of spell down a rabbit hole,” she said, “and you anticipation that it works.”

She and Glass said they’re already been kicking astir a caller thought for a mahjong-themed vacation movie, and DiPippo likewise said readying is good underway for Christmas 2026, including a movie changeable astatine Disney World.

“What’s been truthful large is that our squad is truthful speedy to pivot erstwhile we request to, and if we person to leap connected a moment, we tin bash that too,” DiPippo said. “They are virtually magical elves and they marque this happen.”