Finding Mr. Christmas: Jonathan Bennett on Hallmark’s New Reality Competition

Hallmark Movies Now is becoming Hallmark+ this month with exclusive new movies, original series, and more featuring beloved Hallmark stars—or, as Jonathan Bennett calls them, the Hallmark Cinematic Universe (HCU).

That’s a lot of happily ever after. Bennett played the handsome love interest in Hallmark’s “The Christmas House” and its sequel, “Deck Those Halls,” and stars in the upcoming “Groomsmen” trilogy, with three interlinked love stories. He also created and hosts the streaming service’s reality show, “Finding Mr. Christmas,” a “Bachelor”-style competition, with ten actors striving to star in a Hallmark Christmas movie.

I love Hallmark Christmas movies. My favorites include “Write Before Christmas,” “The Mistletoe Promise,” and last year’s “Groundhog Day”-style Hanukkah movie, “Round and Round.”

I always say there are two types of people in the world. People who watch Hallmark movies and liars. Show me the lie! Hallmark is a brand that makes so many people happy and turn to it. You rarely have a network become part of people’s traditions and synonymous with people’s lives. Like putting up the tree, having people over for dinner, having a holiday party, sledding, all the things you do at the holidays to celebrate whatever holiday you celebrate, and watching Hallmark movies are also part of people’s holiday traditions.

Why do people love them so much?

That’s the million-dollar question. Why do people love Hallmark movies so much? Well, why do you love them so much?

Pretty people, sweet stories, happy endings.

There you go. I think people love Hallmark movies for two reasons. One, because you know how they end. They’re going to have a happy ending. And the holidays are a hard time for a lot of people. The HCU movies have some great escapism and fantasy to turn to, and you can watch pretty people fall in love, make cookies, and have snowball fights.

You know at the end of the movie they’re going to kiss, and they’re going to be in love, and that’s just something sometimes we need for each other at the holidays. 

People also love them because Hallmark’s the only network that uses the old-school studio system. When I go to Christmas conventions and meet all the Hallmark fans that come up, I’m told that a lot of families are going through some emotional turbulence during the holidays. I know some people don’t have family, or for whatever reason, they may not get to spend a lot of time with them. So the Hallmark actors (the Hallmark Cinematic Universe, I call it, like our Avengers), these faces are familiar, and we see them year after year. It’s such an honor for me as a Hallmark actor to be part of people’s chosen family at the holidays that they turn in and watch our movies and get to feel something.

And now there are Hannukah movies!

That’s what Hallmark does so well, especially in the past few years since we’ve had some amazing people like Lisa Hamilton Daly in charge of the network.  She made sure that the stories we tell reflect the audiences who watch them. The holidays are for everyone, and so there’s always a place at our holiday table at Hallmark for everyone. Whether you’re gay, you’re Jewish, whatever it may be, there’s a seat for you at our table, and we want you at Hallmark. You belong here with us, and we want to tell stories that reflect that. I think Hallmark’s done a fantastic job of expanding the holiday table and making sure everyone feels like they’ve had their story told. 

What qualities make a good Hallmark holiday romantic leading man?

I think people love the Hallmark hunks for a handful of reasons. First and foremost, let’s be honest, they’ve got to look good in a Christmas sweater. They’ve just got to look good in a tight Christmas sweater, and we want to see the biceps through the Christmas sweater. 

And then they’ve got to lead with heart because I think heart and vulnerability are what all of our Hallmark Signature stars have. They have a vulnerability and a heart to them that’s very open and exposed, so you can see them as people versus the characters. I think you see the person when you’re watching a Hallmark movie. I think you see Tyler Hines be Tyler. I think you see Jonathan Bennett be Jonathan Bennett. I think you see Wes Brown be Wes Brown. So they’re opening up their heart and being vulnerable, and then they’ve got to have charm, charisma, and wit. They’ve got to be funny. They’ve got to be charming. They have to be charismatic. 

And then the final thing—every Hallmark hunk has is something we can’t explain. And I can’t tell you what it is, but you know it when you see it. And it’s that X factor, that twinkle, that makes the audience sit forward in their chair when they come on screen. That’s the thing I can’t explain or describe, but they all have it, and you know it when you see it.

How did the reality show come about?

So many of my actor friends want to be part of the Hallmark cinematic universe. They want to be a Hallmark Avenger because Hallmark has become so ingrained in pop culture and people’s lives. There’s no place like it.  And I’m a reality show freak. I love it. I was on “Big Brother,” I was on “Dancing with the Stars,” and I’m a huge “RuPaul’s Drag Race” fan. I love reality competition shows, so I thought, “What if we created a reality competition show to find the next Hallmark Holiday Hunk? What if we made it a competition and let America watch in on the journey of what it takes to get there? How fun would that be to watch for the audience?”

So I said, “Well, if you want a seat at the table, you ten guys have to fight it out.” And I thought that would be an entertaining television. And so that’s how “Finding Mr. Christmas” 

What are some of the challenges?

We take ten hunks, and we put them in a giant Christmas house that is fit for a Hallmark movie. In each episode, we put them through different challenges all based on the Hallmark tropes that we’ve come to love from the movies. We put them through all the things our Hallmark stars must do to be a Hallmark star. We have episodes that are based on things like the meet-cute. We have a whole challenge based on wrapping presents. 

We send our hunks outside into the wilderness to chop down a Christmas tree, bring it back, and decorate it. We have our hunks chopping down Christmas trees and putting them over their shoulders, running through an obstacle course, and returning to the house to decorate the tree. We have the photoshoot challenge, the apology scene, and the kiss under the mistletoe. 

I’m the host and our lead judge, but then my main judge is Melissa Peterman, who has been in “Haul Out the Holly” and all the other Hallmark movies. Melissa Peterman is my right hand in all this. She’s there to help judge the guys and give them advice, but then, in every episode, we also have a guest judge who’s one of the Hallmark leading ladies and a few of our Hallmark leading men. In every episode, we have a new guest judge from the Hallmark Cinematic Universe who we put in the scenes with the hunks.

They help give them advice, work on the scenes with them, help them with the challenge, and give them tips because Hallmark’s all about a family, right? 

What comes off on this show so much that I wasn’t expecting when I created it, but what solidified what I am confident will be a new era of reality television is because we are Hallmark, we figured out a way to do reality competition with heart. That is what makes Hallmark Plus and Hallmark Reality different from any other reality out there. 

I know what it’s like to be fake-produced or produced in a way that doesn’t show the truth. Ten strangers walked into this house, competing with each other. But we approach this through a Hallmark lens, with love and compassion. We create a safe space for our hunks to grow, be vulnerable, and learn. We want our guys to shine. 

Sharing their stories bonded them instantly into this beautiful fraternity of love. And because that happened, the guy that would get eliminated every episode wasn’t as upset as the guys that remained because they almost felt bad that their brother was leaving.

At Hallmark Reality Television, it’s true; we’re not here to make friends. We’re here to make a family.