Great American Family President and CEO Bill Abbott previewed the multitude of “high-quality” films the network will air in the coming weeks with the Washington Examiner. This year, the Hallmark rival is releasing new films starring Candace Cameron Bure and A Little Women’s Christmas, loosely based on the novel Little Women, that boasts “an ensemble cast that is really, extremely strong.”

“And then finally, we have a movie that’s an absolutely beautiful piece called I Heard the Bells, which is the story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s creation of the poem I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, which is a beautiful Christmas carol that’s a staple,” Abbott told the Washington Examiner. “So if you look at that collection of movies, and I would argue, that’s the strongest in linear TV or being created anywhere as a collective Christmas group of movies.”

INTERVIEW VIDEO GOES HERE

Abbott delved further into how I Heard the Bells is a departure from other Christmas films, as most of them are typically romantic comedies, whereas this film is “fairly dramatic.” The film, Abbott explained, details how Longfellow recovers from the loss of his wife in a tragic fire when his son wants to go fight for the North in the Civil War and how he ended up writing the iconic Christmas poem amid the turmoil in his life.

The film will air on Thanksgiving night “commercial-free” at 8 p.m. ET and will have an encore airing Saturday night at the same time. Abbott argued the film is “beautifully done” and deserves the spotlight and “prominence” in the network’s schedule to air commercial-free on Thanksgiving night.

Great American Family is also releasing its first film starring Mario Lopez and his wife, Courtney Laine Mazza, after the actor signed a multiyear deal with the network earlier this year. Abbott said they are a “fantastic” couple to work with. Their film, Once Upon a Christmas Wish, will be released on Dec. 7.

“When you get to a certain level, I think it’s easy to fall susceptible to the ‘star-mentality’ and some of the trappings that come with that, and Mario and his wife are just so down to earth,” Abbott said. “They are so focused on their family. They are who they say they are. There’s no pretension at all with either Mario or Courtney and so it’s been wonderful to work with them.”

This year’s output from Great American Family will also debut two films from Bure, the first being A Christmas Less Traveled, which premiered on Nov. 16. The second is Home Sweet Christmas, which will premiere on Dec. 1. The network is also bringing over one of Bure’s most iconic Christmas films from Hallmark, 2013’s Let It Snow, which will debut on Great American Family on Dec. 8.

Great American Family, started in 2021, has spent the last few years building up its name recognition, getting Bure to join the network in 2022, and helping it become the “fastest-growing network in all of cable television.” Meanwhile, Lopez expressed enthusiasm for joining the network in February, stating that “family is the most important thing to me” at this point in his life.

Besides cable television, Great American Family’s films can also be accessed via the streaming service Great American Pure Flix. Noticeably, Great American Family is not yet available on YouTube TV, which Abbott confirmed the network has attempted to address, even offering to air its content for free, which YouTube TV has yet to agree to.