With both the rising demand for more diverse film/tv and the aftermath of social media scandals, such as those surrounding same-sex marriage ads, conservative production companies like The Hallmark Channel are left scrambling to figure out their next move. Though their success has previously been due to their audience basis on conservative viewers, the new pressure to deliver on diversity promises has generated a new wave of more diverse cheesy Christmas romance films, or so they claim. In analyzing the racial and gender diversity makeup of five of their best-rated films from 2000 to 2020, it will be determined whether or not The Hallmark Channel has followed through with its promises for the near future.
What Is the Inclusion Criteria?
The films were selected from the combined lists from It’s a Stampede! and qcapproved’s List of Hallmark Christmas Movies. Just the RottenTomatoes viewers score for the Hallmark films was used to rank the movies; the top films from each year, from 2000 to 2020, were further analyzed. For 2015, the movies analyzed were selected according to which had the most significant number of audience reviews (50+ ratings), as various films had the same audience rating. The diversity statistics of the selected films were analyzed, primarily in terms of the distribution of film leadership roles. The cast/crew roles included in the data analyses include director, writer, lead actors, producers, and executive producers. The data was also formatted into the racial categories of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Middle Eastern, and the gender categories of Male and Female. This was all sorted into two separate pie charts for the movie.
How Inclusive Is The Christmas Secret?
The Christmas Secret (2000) surrounds one scientist’s quest to prove that reindeer can fly and his discovery of the true meaning of Christmas along the way. Though the film did not have a Rotten Tomatoes page, it had a 5.8 out of 10 stars audience rating on its IMDb page. Within its leadership, 100% of cast/crew roles were occupied by White members. In its gender diversity, 100% of the cast/crew was made up of male members.
How Inclusive Is Silver Bells?
Silver Bells (2005) surrounds one teen’s goodwill to get together his father and another widow in a Christmas spirit-filled romance. The film drew a 68% rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Within its leadership, 100% of the cast/crew roles of the film were occupied by White members. In its gender diversity, 86% of the cast/crew comprises female members, with a remaining 14% of male members.
How Inclusive Is November Christmas?
A town community works together to help a young couple bring Christmas to life for their sick young daughter in November Christmas (2010). Even though Sarah Paulson appears as part of the young couple, the film drew a 67% rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Within its leadership, 100% of the cast/crew roles of the film were occupied by White members. In its gender diversity, 17% of the cast/crew comprises female members, with a remaining 83% of male members.
How Inclusive Is Crown for Christmas?
The plot for Crown for Christmas (2015) is reminiscent of classic romance films, with protagonist Allie Evans becoming a governess to a young girl and a potential flame for her father. The film drew a 44% rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Within its leadership, 10% of the cast/crew roles of the film were occupied by Hispanic members, and 90% were occupied by White members. In its gender diversity, 40% of the cast/crew comprises female members, with a remaining 50% of male members.
How Inclusive Is A Timeless Christmas?
A Timeless Christmas (2020) is the time-travel Hallmark film where a man from 1903 is transported into 2020, where he meets a tour guide for his historic mansion and gets to celebrate a modern-day Christmas. The film drew an 85% rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Within its leadership, 100% of the cast/crew roles of the film were occupied by White members. In its gender diversity, 17% of the cast/crew comprises female members, with a remaining 83% of male members.
Overall, there doesn’t seem to be much of a trend across the films; it’s only the presence of Crown for Christmas that stands out as an outlier in terms of racial and gender diversity: at a 10% Hispanic and 40% female makeup of its cast/crew, it is the most inclusive out of the five films. There might be a slight trend towards greater gender diversity, as the general percentage of female cast/crew members has increased since 2000. Still, again, this is a minor increase.
How Can We Analyze The Data?
Though the lack of a trend towards diversity seems very uncharacteristic of most production companies, with the majority pushing for increased diversity due to public and audience opinion, it does fall in line with The Hallmark Channel, past and present. As mentioned in a previous article, Hallmark draws a more conservative audience, mainly due to its roots in religious tv programming. To keep the numbers that this audience generates, most of its programming will remain what they picture as an ideal America: White, heterosexual couples, where men are seen and heard more than everyone and women fall in love with traditional gender roles instead of their busy city lives. Despite their pledge to generate more diverse stories with LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD, after the scandal for pulling an ad that featured a lesbian couple, their work has not shown promising results. In short, the kinds of stories both written by and for a White majority are to remain the priority, especially those by men and for women.
What Can We Conclude?
Promises were made and broken, which shows that these films have had no fundamental shift towards increased diversity with Hallmark’s programming, It’s important to note that change takes time and is not always reflected in popularity. Due to the majority conservative audience, the most highly-rated films are likely those that still follow the traditions and norms that viewers like to see on screen: the White, gender-norm following heterosexual couple. It’s also important to note that the LGBTQ+ diversity promise and partnership with GLAAD was made in 2019. Even though promises were broken, and it’s understandable why, the accountability of production companies as predominant as The Hallmark Channel is precisely what will lead to greater inclusion in race, gender, and even sexual orientation across all forms of tv and movies, even the cheesy Christmas romance movie.
