Christmas movies on Great American Family are different from holiday rom-coms on other channels because they aren’t afraid to celebrate the “reason for the season,” says the CEO of the network’s parent company.
Great American Media CEO Bill Abbott made the comments in the Dec. 7 broadcast of TBN’s Praise, telling hosts Matt Crouch and Laurie Crouch that all Christmas movies are not “the same.” Great American Family currently is airing Christmas content 24/7 and is debuting 20 new movies this holiday season as part of its annual Great American Christmas event.
Great American Family is a rival of the Hallmark Channel.
“I would put our Christmas movies up against anybody else’s,” Abbott said. “... They may all end in a kiss, but they are different, and they are not going to be the same experience over two hours because they're not going to incorporate the spirit of the season, which is faith and family, and those elements that are so important -- and so much a part of the fabric of Christmas.”
The meaning of the season is “Jesus’ birth,” Abbott added.
“It's gotten so lost in the secular world of what the real meaning of Christmas is,” he said.
Great American Family currently is airing an advent calendar and brief advent devotionals during breaks, Abbott noted. The network’s movies offer families “positive and uplifting” plots where they can “sit and enjoy themselves and not worry about life,” he said.
“We've worked really hard at our character development, at our locations, wardrobe, music, relationships, connections -- all the things that make a great movie,” Abbott said.
Abbott appeared on the TBN program alongside actress Danica McKellar, who portrayed a lead character in the new Christmas movie A Royal Date for Christmas.
“With talent like Danica, they really come to life in a way where maybe the end is similar [to other rom-coms,] but we want to celebrate faith, family, and country,” he said. “... Because most of Hollywood -- let's face it -- is denigrating faith, putting the country in a very negative light, families, fathers are looked at as, you know, the idiot in the room rather than a person to look up to. And so we really try hard to reinforce those values.”
Data released in October showed that Great American Family was TV’s fastest-growing network for 11 straight months.
Photo Courtesy: Great American Family. Used with permission.
Video Courtesy: Risen Magazine via YouTube
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
