When Hallmark premieres its latest thriller film on March 13, 2025 — “Thriller Island: Winner Takes All” — the tropical whodunit will air on Hallmark Mystery, the community’s cable channel devoted particularly to family-friendly crime-solving sequence and reveals. However in a scheduling plot twist that has stunned and confused some followers, the premiere will simulcast on Hallmark Channel.
“Wait what?” one fan wrote when Hallmark Channel’s account promoted the film on its Fb web page. “Is it on Hallmark Channel or Hallmark Thriller?”
The social media staff replied, “We wished to present our Hallmark Channel viewers an opportunity to see our mysteries! We hope you may watch Thursday at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel!”
The programming choice has some followers perplexed, making an attempt to unravel the real-life caper of why the 2 channels would air the identical film on the identical time.
‘Aurora Teagarden’ Film Will Additionally Get a Simulcast Premiere in April
Hallmark Thriller — which was rebranded in March 2024 after spending almost 20 years as Hallmark Films & Mysteries — is understood for its round the clock whodunit films and reruns of basic crime sequence like “Homicide, She Wrote” and “Matlock.”
In the meantime, Hallmark Channel, the most-watched entertainment cable network of 2024, not often strays from its eating regimen of original rom-coms, family dramas and reruns of family-friendly comedy sequence together with “Reba” and “Golden Ladies.”
Sometimes, the community will air authentic crime-solving films after they’ve aired first on Hallmark Thriller. As an example, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Story of Three Letters” made its Hallmark Channel debut in September, two months after its July 12 premiere on the thriller channel.
However the simulcast of “Thriller Island: Winner Takes All,” a sequel to the “Mystery Island” film that premiered on Hallmark Thriller in September 2023, is uncommon — and it’s throwing some followers off, with one fan in a Reddit thread in regards to the transfer calling it “worrying.”
The particular person wrote, “Will it actually be on each? And why the heck put it on each?”
One fan theorized, “I like the thought of simulcasting. It’s a method of boosting the movie ranking.”
When Hallmark Channel promoted the upcoming premiere on social media, different followers expressed confusion, together with one who wrote, “Why isn’t a thriller film on Hallmark Mysteries? They don’t have many new films on the thriller channel.”
It’s potential that Hallmark is testing the waters to see how new mysteries carry out on its major channel and boosts total rankings. The community will conduct an analogous stunt on April 10, when “Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Lesson in Murder” — which premiered on streaming platform Hallmark+ in October — makes its cable debut on both channels.
Followers Have Fearful A couple of Lack of New Content material on Hallmark Thriller in 2025
Hallmark Thriller is off to a sluggish begin in 2025, with solely a handful of authentic film premieres. In January, it aired the cable debut of Jodie Sweetin and Stephen Huszar’s “The Jane Mysteries: A Lethal Prescription,” which initially premiered on Hallmark+ within the fall of 2024.
In early February, the channel premiered Alison Sweeney’s newest “Hannah Swensen Thriller,” known as “Actuality Bites.” The March 13 premiere of “Thriller Island: Winner Takes All” marks solely its third premiere of the 12 months on the channel.
Sleuthers have begun to precise their dismay over the dearth of recent content material, together with one wrote on the channel’s Instagram web page, “It seems like there are loads much less mysteries thus far this 12 months :(”
On March 11, many followers preferred a touch upon Hallmark Thriller’s Fb web page from somebody who wrote that the channel “has been completely uncared for. They deal with Hallmark and Hallmark+ and do nothing for Thriller.”
When another person requested whether or not Sarah Drew’s Hallmark+ sequence “Mistletoe Murders” will air on cable, particularly because it’s been renewed for a second season, Hallmark’s social media staff replied, “Proper now, we’re targeted on bringing new, authentic content material to our streaming group on Hallmark + and exposing that viewers to new genres and codecs.”
However there are indicators that new Hallmark Thriller films are on the way in which. The second of two “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” films — “To The Moon and Back” — is due for a 2025 launch, Production Weekly listed two “Hannah Swensen” films had been being filmed within the fall of 2024 signaling that one other is probably going in post-production, and the “True Justice” solid kicked off 2025 by filming two new movies.
In the meantime, “Thriller Island” screenwriter John Christian Plummer told TVShowAce that the March 13 premiere — starring Elizabeth Henstridge, Charlie Weber and Kristin Sales space — received’t be the final within the franchise.
