Hallmark Stars Who Have Revealed Their Behind-The-Scenes Business With The Network

Sitting down to take in a Hallmark movie is a special experience that keeps the network's massive fanbase coming back for more year after year. Mixing the common themes of resilience, redemption, and love with everyone's favorite storytelling tropes (enemies to lovers, fake relationships, and second chances are a few of our favorites) is an unbeatable recipe that results in happy and satisfied viewers. Much of the draw lies in the opportunity to shut off the stress of everyday life and become immersed in a simple fantasy — that it's never too late to change your fate.

While this form of entertainment provides a welcome escape from the busy day job for most, the stars of the network deal with the exact opposite. This is their day job after all, and although leading lady Erin Cahill insists her fellow actors are family, the fact remains there is a more serious side to the business — one that can be complex and demands to be handled with care and consideration. When asked about their strategy for maintaining talent, Hallmark's Executive VP Lisa Hamilton Daly described a typical contract to Deadline. "It's usually for either two movies, and some of them are for a Christmas movie. It's really to make sure that we have access to that talent during the year," she said.

Although most of the bread and butter happens behind the scenes, there are more than a few Hallmark stars who have spilled the beans concerning certain aspects of their contracts. Read on to learn more about the drama that happens before and after you get to see the big kiss at the Christmas tree farm — and we're not leaving anything out.

When Brooke Shields signed on for a whopping 16 movies with Hallmark in 2014, she assumed she was in it for the long haul, but the full scope of that contract never came to fruition. The partnership was cut short after only three "Flower Shop Mystery" films when the former model decided she was not getting what she signed up for. "I'd completed only three when I realized I had to renegotiate. I'd been hired, I was told, to help change the face of the network," she wrote in her 2025 memoir "Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman." "They wanted me to be funny and bring more comedy to their offerings, but as filming progressed on each of the Flower Shop Mysteries — the franchise I was hired to headline — all the humor had evaporated."

Shields is through not standing up for herself in an industry that can be brutal to young and older women alike, as she's learned throughout her storied career. Therefore, she decided that she couldn't continue on a project that wasn't right for her. "I simply could not do 10 more films that were not what I was promised and felt completely wrong for me. So I quit," she wrote. "I definitely surprised some people, and in plenty of ways I surprised myself. I certainly would never have done that in my 20s."

This doesn't mean that "The Blue Lagoon" star harbors any hard feelings against the network. "Not everything is for everyone, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Hallmark Channel — God knows it has a huge fan base — but it was not the future I wanted for my career," she penned.

Fans who've seen every Hallmark Christmas movie starring Luke Macfarlane will be the first to tell you he's been an important staple for the popular network, and for good reason — from his 2014 debut in "Christmas Land" to 2023's "Catch Me If You Claus," the fan-favorite fails to disappoint. While MacFarlane will always feel grateful for Hallmark, he has admitted he's looking for something more true to himself.

Although Hallmark has offered him no shortage of leading roles, most of them have been for heterosexual characters and MacFarlane has been out as a gay man since 2008. "If you go to my IMDb page, there's a lot of me holding hands with some nice Christian white lady. I'm totally freaked out by that," he told Vanity Fair. In fact, he didn't play a gay leading role for Hallmark until 2023 in "Notes of Autumn," a film that showcased two different romances for the main plot — one between popular leading lady Ashley Williams and Marcus Rosner, and another with MacFarlane starring opposite Peter Porte in a house-swap story reminiscent of the smash hit film "The Holiday."

Perhaps that's why the "Sense, Sensibility, and Snowmen" star chose to take his talents to Netflix back in 2021 for "Single All the Way." He explained on Tosh Show how he was able to do that. "I've had overall deals with them [Hallmark] and in [the terms it says,] I'm gonna commit to five Christmas movies or five movies, but I can't work for any other network — and they name all the other networks — and they can't be holiday-related movies," he said. "So I was able to do it because I was outside my deal with them."

Although Hilarie Burton was initially hesitant to do a Christmas movie, they quickly became a staple for her when she found success at Hallmark with the film "Naughty or Nice." She was considered a network darling for a time, but things went south when the "One Tree Hill" alum realized her creative suggestions were not being taken seriously, prompting her to look elsewhere for future projects.

The "A Christmas Wish" star wasn't quiet about her feelings after parting ways with the network, taking to social media to share with fans the real reason she left the Hallmark channel. "I had insisted on a LGBTQ character, an interracial couple, and diverse casting. I was polite, direct, and professional. But after the execs gave their notes on the script and NONE of my Requests were honored, I was told 'take it or leave it.' I left it," she revealed on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Although Hallmark has made strides to tell more diverse stories as of late, their journey towards inclusivity wasn't quick enough for Burton, who asked for these very specific benchmarks to be met back in January 2019 while working on a film she was otherwise excited about. "I really wanted that job. It was close to my house. It paid really well. It was about the military, which you all know I hold dear," she continued. "Id [sic] walk away again in a heartbeat," she confirmed, before showing some love to the Lifetime network for being more committed to representation. The jump wasn't a difficult one for the actor who had already worked with Lifetime on films like "Christmas on the Bayou" and "The Christmas Contract."

With Danica McKellar's complete list of Hallmark movies numbering 16 in the span of just six years, we were surprised to learn that the leading lady never had an exclusive contract with the network. "At Hallmark, I never had an overall deal," McKellar confirmed with Cheryl Burke on the "Sex, Lies and Spray Tans" podcast. Beginning in 2015 with "Perfect Match," the former child star worked overtime for the popular network until her final film in 2021. She ended her relationship on a high note with "You, Me & the Christmas Trees" before being one of the first to join the Great American Family network by signing a deal in October 2021. 

But the real reason McKellar ditched Hallmark for Great American Family may surprise you, as it had more to do with loyalty than jumping ship. "So, Great American Family channel was started by the man who ran Hallmark Channel for 20 years. Bill Abbott is his name. I credit him with reviving my career, giving me the genre," continued "The Wonder Years" star. "I did, like, 15 movies with him at Hallmark Channel. So, when he left to start his own network and he asked me to come along, I was like, 'Yeah.'"

But it wasn't just a sense of obligation to the big wig that convinced her, as she said Great American Family was able to offer her what Hallmark never did — multi-picture deals and creative control. "They let me be way more involved in the writing and the producing," she explained to Burke. "It is so creatively fulfilling. ... I just like being more involved."

A complete list of Candace Cameron Bure's Hallmark movies clocks in at a whopping 30, an impressive feat considering her catalog for the network reached its conclusion in half as many years. The "Full House" alum made her debut for Hallmark with "Moonlight & Mistletoe" in 2008, and it wasn't until she chose not to renew her most recent contract that the partnership dissolved, with Bure inspiring a mass exodus of regulars to follow her to her new home at Great American Family beginning in 2022.

Bure positioned her departure as a business decision. "It just so happened that my contract was expiring when Great American Family started up," she told Variety. "So we did not start having those discussions until we were well into negotiations with Hallmark Channel for renewing. And as every business person knows, you've got to do what's right for contracts."

While actors like Luke Macfarlane and Hilarie Burton were looking for more inclusivity from Hallmark, Bure found herself in the midst of one of her most controversial moments after all but confirming the opposite. Although the "Let It Snow" star claimed her departure came down to contracts, she made some divisive comments regarding representation soon after joining Great American Family as not just an actor, but their chief creative officer. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bure revealed that her new network would "keep traditional marriage at the core" of its storytelling, unleashing fierce backlash from fans. In fact, there's a list of celebs who just don't like Bure, mostly because of her traditional views, and we have to wonder if Hallmark's recent creative choices had more to do with her decision to leave than she let on.