Hallmark pulled out all the stops to promote and celebrate its most star-studded movie of the year, “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story,” which premiered with great fanfare on November 30, 2024.
Ratings show all the hard work paid off, Hallmark Media reported on December 6, with “Holiday Touchdown” already becoming the most-watched cable movie of 2024 “across all key demographics.” It’s no wonder fans are already asking stars Tyler Hynes and Hunter King for a sequel.
In “Holiday Touchdown,” created in partnership with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, Hynes and King are backed up by star-studded supporting cast including Ed Begley Jr. as King’s grandpa and a collection of fun cameos from stars including “Today Show” star Jenna Bush Hager (as a sports reporter), NFL mom Donna Kelce (as a BBQ joint manager), Hallmark star Wes Brown (as a bartender), Coach Andy Reid (as himself) and multiple Chiefs players.
The movie aired as part of Hallmark’s “Merry Thanksgiving Weekend,” which featured multiple original movie premieres from Wednesday through Sunday. According to Hallmark, strong ratings across the board meant the network held onto its title as the most-watched entertainment cable network during Thanksgiving week for the 12th year in a row among women ages 18+.
Kansas City news station KMBC reported that 2.88 million people watched the movie’s premiere, making it most-watched cable program of the day. The football movie even outperformed actual football games, KMBC said, including ESPN’s highly-anticipated college football game between rivals South Carolina and Clemson, which drew 2.40 million viewers.
Hallmark, which is headquartered in Kansas City, put a great deal of work into promoting the movie, including holding its first-ever red carpet premiere on-air at Hallmark Channel, with popular Hallmark star Benjamin Ayres interviewing celebrities and reporting from the red carpet during commercial breaks throughout the day. Fans lined up in droves to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars outside the premiere.
‘Holiday Touchdown’ Stars React to Sequel Buzz & Imagine New Premise
HallmarkTyler Hynes appears in “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” with Donna Kelce, mother of Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce and former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce
With the popularity of “Holiday Touchdown,” there’s the inevitable buzz from fans and media about a possible sequel, which Hynes and King have addressed with some reporters.
Spoiler Alert: If you don’t want to know how “Holiday Touchdown” ends, do not read any further.
In “Holiday Touchdown,” King plays a woman trying to win the Chiefs’ “Fan of the Year” award, while Hynes works in the team’s fan engagement department, and the two wind up falling for each other. The duo told Swoon that they’d love to film a sequel in which their characters get married, potentially at Arrowhead Stadium.
“Would they get married on the field, or would it be somewhere in the stadium?” King wondered aloud, to which Hynes replied, “Oh, in the middle of the field… and the tagline would be like, ‘Tackling Love’ or ‘Tackling Marriage.’”
“We’re all in,” he quipped. “We’re writing it now.”
Though Hynes did admit it would be difficult to match the hype around the original movie, telling Swoon, “Nothing will feel quite like this ever again. Maybe it’ll be different, maybe bigger, maybe better, maybe worse. Who knows? But definitely will never feel like this. I think if there’s a sequel on deck, Ed (Begley Jr.) will have to put up with us again.”
Hynes and King also joked to Glamour that the sequel could be a romance starring Donna Kelce, with King revealing, “Tyler has said before the sequel would be ‘Holiday Touchdown: A Donna Kelce Love Story.’ So we hope Donna is ready for that.”
Imagining that their characters’ love story would have inspired Kelce’s character to find love too, Hynes began to imagine the sequel’s premise.
“We become like friends, confidants,” he said. “We start setting her up on dates. Things go awry around the holiday season. And then Patrick Mahomes and their backup quarterback go down in the final game of the Super Bowl. They have to tap in Donna Kelce. She throws the game-winning touchdown to her son.”
“Taylor Swift floats down from above,” he continued. “That’s like a Christmas angel singing. A brand-new Taylor Swift Christmas song that’s going to blow the charts out. Oh, have I just written this movie?”
“Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story” is scheduled to air again on Hallmark Channel on December 8 at 6 p.m. Eastern time, and four additional times before the end of the year.
Related
Source link
