Ratings Battle: Hallmark’s Lacey Chabert V.S. GAC’s Danica McKellar
There is a real cable television showdown on Saturday night. On the Hallmark Channel, Lacey Chabert starred in The Wedding Veil, along with When Calls The Heart’s Kevin McGarry. This is the first movie in a trilogy that includes Alison Sweeney, and Autumn Reeser.
On the new GAC Family, led by former Hallmark CEO, Bill Abbott, is former Hallmark Queen Danica McKeller. Her new movie is The Winter Palace. In this Royal Romance, she stars with Neal Bledsoe, who once again plays a charming and regal prince.
Both movies aired on Saturday, January 8, at 8 p.m. Eastern. This means that the two actresses were in a bit of a rating competition.
Now that three former Hallmark Channel fan-favorites Danica McKellar, Trevor Donovan, and Jen Lilley have signed exclusive deals with GAC Media, fans want to know if  this will affect Hallmark. Thus, the rating battle.
So, which movie had better ratings?
The Wedding Veil V.S. The Winter Palace
On Saturday, January 8, which movie got better ratings? First, let’s look at our competitors.
On the Hallmark Channel, they aired The Wedding Veil. This movie is the first of a trilogy of movies.
In this first movie, we get the backstory. This is about three friends who meet once a year in different cities to go antiquing.
On this trip to San Francisco, they find a beautiful antique wedding veil with a mysterious history. They agree to each take it at one time. The first to take it is Avery (Chabert). She brings it back to Boston, to find out more about it.
When back, she runs into a member of her museum’s board, with who she had sparks, and frustration while in San Francisco. As she works to find out the secret of this veil, as well as a priceless masterpiece uncovered in the basement of the museum, she begins to wonder if the veil magic could lead to romance?
Danica’s movie is the story of a frustrated writer. After one successful novel, Emily (McKellar) has writer’s block. Her friend has her caretake an empty property, an enormous chalet in the mountains. This way, the property is cared for, and Emily can find peace and tranquility to write her next bestseller.
However, the family shows up, and it turns out that they are pretty special. They are a Royal Family of a small country in Europe. The family includes a charming and handsome Prince Henry (Bledsoe).
Now, stuck in this awkward situation, could Emily lose her writer’s block and find the love of her life?
While both titles look fantastic, with excellent casts, which movie won? Turns out, Lacey Chabert’s movie had a larger, live viewing audience.
Moreover, that is just the beginning of this story.
Did Lacey’s Hallmark Movie, Or Did Danica’s GAC Movie Get Better Ratings?
Although Lacey Chabert and Danica McKellar both had wonderful movies, equally charming co-stars, and very romantic plots, one movie was the overall rating winner.
Hallmark won, with 3.394 million live viewers. This was their best premiere ratings since 2020. This is especially astonishing, as there are more cord-cutters than ever.
Lacey Chabert’s The Wedding Veil Overwhelmingly Wins Ratings Battle
According to Sleepy Kitty Paw on Twitter, The Wedding Veil was the top non-sports program.
While don’t usually note non-holiday ratings, Hallmark’s THE WEDDING VEIL drew 3.394 million Saturday (.29 demo), finishing 10th overall as day’s top, non-sports program. GAC’s THE WINTER PALACE once again outside cable’s top 150, which included shows with as few as 44k viewers.
That means that The Winter Palace had less than 44,000 live viewers. They did not make the Cable’s top 150 on Show Buzz Daily.
Lacey Chabert Topped Hallmark’s 2021 Premieres
As for Lacey Chabert, her 2021 Christmas movie, Christmas At Castle Hart, was the top Hallmark movie, with 3.31 live viewers. Don’t forget that the premiere of Christmas Waltz was the top viewed 2020 Christmas movie!
The Wedding Veil is a longtime passion project for Lacey. She has to be so pleased that the response has been so overwhelming.
As for Danica, both she and Neal Bledsoe promoted this movie very hard. What is more unfortunate, this was a fun and romantic movie with a lot of chemistry.
Yet, it is not clear if fans are still having issues getting GAC Family on their television. Those viewers who cannot find the channel can call toll-free at 855-701-2804.
However, The Winter Palace has been available to stream on IMDb TV since Friday, January 14. The other GAC Family Christmas movies were available on Peacock, and even on Amazon Prime before they premiered on the new network.
For those who want to catch The Winter Palace on GAC Family, the next time it airs is on Saturday, January 15, at 6 p.m. Eastern.
Did you miss The Wedding Veil? The next time Hallmark airs this Lacey Chabert movie is on Thursday, January 13, at 8 p.m. Eastern.
I will not treat it as a battle, I will watch both GAC and Hallmark. I like both these ladies and will continue to enjoy them. Stop trying to make a war out of this!!!!!!
I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. While watching one I recorded the other.
Cannot watch GAC Family because it is not available on my DISH without spending more money to get it. Therefore, will continue to watch Hallmark channel.
I Agree. Dish needs to offer both channels in the same package.
We are cutting the cord (Spectrum) and going with YouTube TV which doesn’t have GAC Family so we are also adding Frndly TV so we can get GAC Family, the History Channel and a few others. Both YouTube TV and Frndly have all three Hallmark Channels so that’s a bonus when we have too many family members streaming on YouTube TV.
I think it’s so funny those that criticize Great American Family Channel about their ratings being so low when they are still fairly new and was very limited on who aired them compared to Hallmark until more recent when more services are picking them up. If you are going to compare you should do it with a channel that’s been around the same length of time. By the way, the first Christmas movie on Great American Family did break ratings so they are climbing up.
Agree with above Replies that the ratings/viewership comparisons are not fair considering Hallmark has been around much longer than Gaf and carried by more streaming services. I for one have switched to Gac & UpTV since Hallmark has gone woke in the name of “diversity” the last few years.
If there’s a movie you don’t like, just don’t watch it – no need to abandon a channel – for example, there are more black movies on Hallmark now and the ratings are always lower than other movies – their new CEO is gonna find out that the older white women who watch Hallmark aren’t interested in those movies – if there’s something you don’t like, don’t watch it but don’t abandon the channel.