Hallmark’s Hailey Dean Mysteries & These Other 8 Shows Canceled

The Hallmark Channel is known for crafting holiday romances in December, but the company also has family dramas and mystery series throughout the year, and one of its most popular series of movies, Hailey Dean Mysteries, was canceled in 2019. Hallmark and its sister network Hallmark Mystery both combine original content with syndicated dramas in their schedules. Some of their original programming includes serial television shows as well as series of interconnected movies.

Over the last few years, however, Hallmark has canceled a lot of content that I love. Hallmark’s mysteries, in particular, often provide cozy content that does not rely on the usual love story to keep me interested. Many of Hallmark’s most recent cancellations have been some of those fantastic series of mystery movies. It’s disappointing to see so many of them hit the chopping block.

9

Hailey Dean Mysteries (2016-2019)

A Lawyer Becomes A Therapist And Mysteries Still Come Her Way

The Hailey Dean Mysteries have a lot going on, which is part of the reason Hallmark fans love them. The titular Hailey was once a prosecutor for the District Attorney. After the death of her fiancé, she became a therapist. Despite it not being her line of work, mysteries just keep falling into her lap, and she keeps investigating them. This movie series is refreshing because it does not put its main character into the typical female Hallmark roles of florist, teacher, or some sort of cook/baker.

After nine movies, Hallmark never officially announced the end of the mystery movie series. Instead, they just allowed time to pass and fans to speculate, leaving lead actor Kellie Martin to make the announcement on her Twitter account in 2021. Though she has since deleted her account, she announced, “I just found out that Hailey Dean is done at Hallmark [broken heart emoji] Really sad and sorry to report.”

Her costar Viv Leacock was equally sad to find out the news, sharing how fans from all over the world had shared their love for the series with him:

8

Good Witch (2015-2021)

The TV Series Continues The 2008 Movie Series

Good Witch is one of the rare Hallmark series that was spun out of TV movies. While the concept started with a Hallmark movie in 2008, movie sequels followed, and then, a weekly series with Catherine Bell playing the lead in all of them. It follows a woman with magical abilities who tries to bring positivity into the world with her magic.

It’s not clear why Hallmark canceled the series as it was one of their most popular franchises. Even during the airing of the season, TV specials would also release. It’s possible the network had thought the story had simply run its course. It is true that the ratings in the seventh season of the show were lower than the previous one, but that happens with long-running shows. It was averaging 18% less viewers in the final season, according to TV Series Finale.

Of course, just because the series itself has been canceled does not mean that Hallmark will never bring it back in another way. In addition to Bell’s magical character, Bailee Madison and Katherine Barrell also played characters with magical gifts, and any one of them could be persuaded to do a new project set in the same world. In 2022, Hallmark’s Executive VP of Programming, Lisa Hamilton Daly, could not comment on any potential future plans, but did call it the network’s “most popular I[ntellectual] P[roperty]” (via TV Line).

7

Matchmaker Mysteries (2019-2021)

A Relationship Expert Gets In The Middle Of Mysteries

For several years, Danica McKellar seemed to be making a new acting home for herself with Hallmark. She appeared in several projects across their networks, including Matchmaker Mysteries. The movie series features three movies starring McKellar as a famous matchmaker. The relationship expert even hosts her own television program in which she finds people love. In the movies, she becomes entangled in murder mysteries when she knows the suspects.

While there has been no publicly released statement from Hallmark about the cancellation of the movie series, Showbiz Cheat Sheet did get a representative to confirm that the movies had ended in an email as they said, “At this time, there are no further installments of Matchmaker Mysteries in development.”

Fans have speculated that the movies may have ended as a result of McKellar signing on to work for Hallmark competitor Great American Family. McKellar, however, noted in a Twitter (now X) exchange, that she is only signed to do romance and holiday movies with Great American Family and her contract could still allow her to do mysteries for the network if Hallmark chose to:

6

Home & Family (2012-2021)

Hallmark’s Revival Of A Daytime Talk Show

Home and Family was a new version of a daytime talk show that had originally been part of The Family Channel before it became Fox Family, and then ABC Family, and then Freeform. The Hallmark version of the show saw several TV personalities and actors in their network projects participate in the show, which featured interviews, cooking, crafts, and general home and family tips.

The final hosts of the series were Debbie Matenopoulos and Cameron Mathison in 2021. At that point, the series had undergone delays and several precautions to film during the COVID-19 pandemic. The show paused production multiple times during the pandemic, and it proved to be too inconsistent to keep the cast and crew contracted to a show that might not be able to film. Like so many projects, it became a casualty of COVID.

5

Picture Perfect Mysteries (2019-2020)

A Photographer And Detective Team Up

Real-life husband and wife Carlos and Alexa PenaVega have teamed up in several Hallmark projects. While most of those have been standalone movies, they also appear together in a trilogy called Picture Perfect Mysteries. She is a photographer who keeps finding herself in the middle of mysteries while he plays the detective investigating them, and the two work together to catch the guilty party. They have the perfect Hallmark Mystery formula and chemistry.

Picture Perfect Mysteries was not announced as canceled by Hallmark officially. When Alexa PenaVega was asked about the movies during an Instagram Q&A, however, she did confirm that they would not be making any more, but were “really proud” of what they had done together. Part of the appeal of the movies was the chemistry between the two, but since they have appeared in other Hallmark romances together, they may get another shot at making more mysteries for Hallmark.

Like the Hailey Dean Mysteries and the Matchmaker Mysteries, Picture Perfect Mysteries was canceled in 2021. All of those movie series filmed before COVID-19 production shutdowns occurred, and any future installments were “on hold” during the entertainment industry’s complete shut down. It’s likely that had a part to play in all three mystery series being canceled.

4

Chesapeake Shores (2016-2022)

A Romantic Drama Centered On The O’Brien Family

Chesapeake Shores is a series that took the premise of a Hallmark romance movie, but only had that as the tipping off point for the show. A woman moves back to her smaller hometown from New York after her sister, who is running an inn, calls her in a panic. From there, the series hits a lot of the Hallmark tropes, like reuniting with family members, reconnecting with a first love, etc.

The series was canceled in 2022, but unlike a lot of these other Hallmark series, the show had already had a successful six-season run, with the final two seasons slightly delayed by the production shutdowns that occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Series star Jesse Metcalfe left the series during the fifth season. Ratings fell during those final two seasons (via TV Series Finale), which was likely a contributing factor to the show ending as well. The network did, however, announce that the series was ending ahead of time, so the writers, the cast, and the audience knew it was coming.

3

Mystery 101 (2019-2021)

A Literature Professor Teams Up With A Detective

Mystery 101 aired on both Hallmark in the United States and the W Network in Canada. Like most Hallmark projects, the movies that make up the series were filmed in Canada and were made as a joint venture between production companies. Mystery 101’s movies follow a literature professor (Jill Wagner) who specializes in crime fiction and ends up teaming up with a local detective (Kristoffer Polaha) to solve mysteries.

There were seven movies in the series released on the networks over just three years. The last movie in the series ended on a cliffhanger with the main character’s previously unknown fiancé being a murder victim after a time jump. With that cliffhanger, it looks like Hallmark intended to keep making the movie series. The network canceled the series in April of 2023.

Then Hallmark CEO Wonya Lucas was diplomatic when asked about the cancellation of the movie series later that year at the Broadcasting + Cable Hall of Fame ceremony (via The Sun). She explained the network was keeping some of their older mystery series and bringing in new ones after having not made new mysteries in so long:

Well, we hadn’t done it in a long, long time, right? And we just brought the mysteries back. So, we’re just looking at mysteries a little differently now.

We’re taking some- We’ve created some new mysteries, in addition to some that we’ve had in the past. So, it’s just an evolution of our mysteries. We’re just doing a lot of new things.

Rumors have persisted that the movies might have been canceled because Jill Wagner had signed on to do movies with Hallmark competitor GAC, but that has never been confirmed by anyone at Hallmark.

2

Ride (2023)

The Story Of A Family Of Ranchers

With the popularity of Yellowstone and all of its spin off series, other networks and streamers have been trying to recapture the interest in the Western genre. Hallmark did that as well with Ride, which followed a family of cattle ranchers living in Colorado. The series premiered 10 episodes on Hallmark in 2023, but the show was canceled in 2024.

It’s likely that Hallmark ultimately opted to cancel the series because it did not have the ratings the network hoped for. While it debuted to over a million viewers, it had lost nearly one-third of its audience by the season finale (via TV Series Finale). In contrast, The Way Home, which premiered on the network the same year, gained viewers with nearly every episode, and was renewed (via TV Series Finale). Hallmark wants to build on its audience, and Ride did not allow the network to do that, unfortunately.

1

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries (2015-2022)

A Small-Town Librarian Solves Murders

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries are inspired by a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, the same author of the series that inspired HBO’s True Blood. The cozy mysteries feature the titular Aurora (Candace Cameron Bure) and her friends in the Real Murders Club solving local mysteries.

Unlike a lot of Hallmark’s recent cancellations, this series was not canceled as the result of delays in filming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it was canceled when Candace Cameron Bure decided to leave Hallmark altogether. She signed a contract with GAC Family. The Great American Family network has been attempting to compete with Hallmark with their family-friendly romances and holiday movies.

As of 2023, however, Aurora Teegarden has another chance. Prequel movies to the original series began airing on Hallmark Mystery in 2023 with Skyler Samuels taking over the lead role. The movies are set when Aurora was still in college. The first three aired in 2023 and 2024. That’s a bit of a silver lining for mystery fans like me who want the series to go on forever.

Hallmark Also Has Several Movie Series On Hold

Both Hallmark’s flagship channel and their mystery-focused channel employ a lot of the same actors, so there is a lot of crossover between the two. More often than not, however, it is the mystery channel that gets series of movies featuring the same actors and characters rather than the original network. What the mystery-focused network often does, however, is make one or two movies featuring the character and then wait to see how reception goes for them, so a lot of those series can end up “on hold” for a long time while the network makes the decision about continuing them.

Lacey Chabert is the undisputed queen of Hallmark. She has appeared in over 40 of them, and a few of those are part of different series. On the mystery side of Hallmark, Chabert has led both Crossword Mysteries and Dancing Detective. While it was initially reported that the series (Dancing Detective is said to be a standalone movie for now) has ended, that may not be true. Chabert renegotiated her contract with Hallmark in 2024, so it’s entirely possible either of those could have more installments on the way now that her deal is finalized.

If Chabert is the queen of Hallmark, then Alison Sweeney is the one who could next have the crown. She has appeared in more than 30 movies for Hallmark, and like Chabert, she appears in both the flagship channel’s romance movies as well as the mystery network’s movie series. She is the star of the Hannah Swensen Mysteries, but while those movies were on a break, she appeared in three movies in the Chronicle Mysteries series.

According to Sweeney, when she participated in the Hallmark Mystery podcast, the decision was made to place the Chronicle movies on hold while she filmed as Hannah Swensen so as not to confuse the audience by her leading two of their mystery franchises at the same time. Chronicle Mysteries is very different from anything else on the network, featuring Sweeney as a podcaster who solves murders while working at her uncle’s small-town newspaper. Hallmark fans have been clamoring for more installments since the last one premiered in 2021.

The Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries starring Jesse Metcalfe have also been on hold for a few years now, but that one may be down to Metcalfe’s own busy schedule. The actor is also a producer and has had several projects in the works in recent years, including a miniseries for Lifetime, the movie The Comic Shop, and a possible sequel to John Tucker Must Die.

Several new movies with new faces for Hallmark were released in 2023 and 2024 as the network decides which new movies to continue into series. The Mystery Island movies starring Elizabeth Henstridge are continuing as well as Haunted Harmony Mysteries starring Tamera Mowry. Hallmark still has Tipline Mysteries starring Holland Roden, Crime Time starring Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Family History Mysteries starring Janel Parrish on hold. All of those actors have also been working in romance movies on the regular network though, so it’s likely their series will get to continue as well.

Despite Hallmark having canceled what seems like a large number of series since 2019, including Hailey Dean Mysteries, the network and its sister networks are continuing to make a lot of standalone movies, so I can rest easy knowing that there are still plenty of Hallmark movies on the way.