holiday spirit

Candace Cameron Bure to launch crappy new TV channel that tells stories of “traditional” marriage

Candace Cameron Bure
Candace Cameron Bure (Photo: Shutterstock)

Candace Cameron Bure, dubbed the queen of Christmas for her previous starring roles in numerous Hallmark holiday movies, is touting a new, gay-unfriendly venture.

Bure left Hallmark to join former CEO Bill Abbott at the Great American Family Channel in 2021. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Bure said her new channel will be concentrating on “traditional” families.

Her remarks come after Hallmark has made strides to be more inclusive. This holiday season, it’s releasing its first holiday movie centered on a same-sex couple.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Great American Family to follow suit.

“My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning and purpose and depth behind them,” Bure said of her decision to sign up to the new channel. “I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment.”

She went on to throw shade at her previous employer. She said Hallmark, “basically is a completely different network than when I started because of the change of leadership.”

Related: Hallmark to homophobes: More gay is on the way

Bure made her Hallmark debut in 2008 and appeared in around 30 movies for the channel. She has also appeared on Dancing With The Stars and was a regular host on The View between 2015-2016. Some of you may also remember her as a child star on Full House.

Asked about Hallmark’s move toward more diverse storytelling, and if GAF might have any movies with same-sex couples, Bure responded, “I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core.”

Bill Abbott, in the same interview, was a little more circumspect, saying, “It’s certainly the year 2022, so we’re aware of the trends. There’s no whiteboard that says, ‘Yes, this’ or ‘No, we’ll never go here.’”

Yes, he used the word “trends”.

The birth of Great American Family channel

In September, Bure and Abbot spoke with Variety about their new channel. Abbot said it would be concentrating on Christmas movies at first. However, it would look to doing content with other faiths in the future. He acknowledged that those wishing to tell more diverse stories might go to Hallmark or Netflix to pitch and develop their projects first.

“Sometimes we’re not thought of by people who are really good at those storylines and so we have to go seek them… In growing this business, it’s much a much heavier lift than I ever thought. I knew it was going to be hard, but not this hard. And so, we’ll get there, but it’s not an overnight thing.”

Bure’s latest comments prompted criticism from many online.

Related: Hunky gay ‘Bros’ star Luke Macfarlane was the straight man—literally—in a dozen Hallmark movies

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