Bill Abbott explains why he believes DEI transformed the Hallmark Channel and ultimately led to his departure from the network. Speaking at CPAC, Abbott reflects on Hallmark's rapid growth, its focus on family-friendly programming, and the internal changes he says shifted the company's direction.
Abbott discusses Hallmark's success with its Christmas programming and recalls the network's involvement in televising President Trump's first White House Christmas Tree Lighting. He argues that growing pressure to embrace DEI initiatives conflicted with the values and expectations of Hallmark's core audience, prompting him to eventually launch Great American Media with a renewed focus on faith, family, and traditional values.
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Have been praying for revival.
We have been praying for our country.
We have been praying to return back to the Christian Judeo
values that our country is founded on and those great
freedoms that we all are blessed to enjoy.
So today we are delighted and honored to talk with you about
where we've come where we are and what God has for this country
in the future.
Amen.
All right, let's get started.
Well Bill and Dean, it's surreal to be able to sit here and
have a conversation with both of you because both of you are
so integral in terms of this journey.
We have all been on Bill.
I want to start with you.
We know you have a stellar background.
You have led the faith in media movement with your positions
throughout the years.
Now you're with the Great American Media Corporation.
You're leading that there's so many projects that you have
now more that are coming.
Well, a lot of us have heard your name.
A lot of us have watched your entertainment.
We're so excited about what you're doing.
So thank you for that.
I want to start with something that I don't know that you
have touched on in public.
We're among family.
We're going to do it right here right now.
You were previously with the Hallmark Channel and all of a
sudden one day you were gone and you have not really given
us the behind the scenes the scoop our journalists like to
get in terms of what really happened.
Would you like to talk about that for the first time right
here public?
Of course.
I'm dying.
Well, we work together a lot.
Yeah, and we will work together at the Hallmark Channel.
But amazingly after you left, I didn't work at the Hallmark
Channel anymore.
Well, you're next after he tells his story.
Well, you know, so we had a great team at Hallmark that
built a an incredible franchise and a great brand and a
network and a bunch of networks actually and we got to the
point in 2017.
We were number one fourth quarter.
We found time for successful and at that point though, you
could see the change in, you know, the chairman and the
management at the parent company and the family to become
much more well and D I driven very D I driven and so, you
know, they were D I for it was cool to be and the reality of
that was that we were serving an audience that was focused
on family-friendly content and faith-based content that
they wanted.
They wanted traditions.
They wanted values.
They wanted to see that expressed on TV and making and
so there was tremendous pressure from the family to make
changes.
So at some point then you decided and you stood up and
had the courage to say I'm not going along with this.
I heard maybe this little birdie told me the right information
of the wrong information, but there was an incident that
happened with the White House tree lighting.
Well, this was really the beginning of really seeing this
become public or become evident to me.
We were chosen to host and televised the White House tree
lighting.
It was President Trump's first time doing the tree lighting
and there was an article in The Hill that said Trump White
House partners with Hallmark Channel for Christmas tree
lighting and it was wildly successful.
The president's first tree lighting and we had talent there.
It did the ratings.
It was part of our Christmas presentation and the reaction
was at the time that's not so good and you're either with
humanity or you're against it.
