While most Christmas-time lovers say it is the most wonderful time of the year, ABC says it is time for the Christmas countdown.
The Christmas countdown on ABC Freeform provides Christmas movies periodically throughout the day from Dec. 1 through Dec. 25. ABC has hosted this event since 1996, and every year ABC adds new movies to keep it original.
Freeform will be adding the following new movies: “The Truth About Christmas”, “Life Size 2”, and “No Sleep Till’ Christmas’’.
The ABC program has been considered the biggest programming event of the year according to the Official Disney Fan Club. In 2014, ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas was also all time most watched for a week straight among adults 18-34 years of age according to the NTI, U.S. ratings.
ABC has aired popular movies such as, “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Elf” twice in the past and has been in the week’s top 11 in viewers 12-34 years of age according to the NTI, U.S. ratings.
Even so, over the years Freeform’s countdown to Christmas has decreased in popularity.
One of Freeform’s big competitors is the Hallmark channel. The biggest difference between these two TV channels is that Hallmark creates their own movies that are very predictable, and Freeform shows movies that were made by Hollywood and others. Even though they add new ones every year, most of the movies they play now are getting repetitive and not as enjoyable.
The line up starts out with a smooth transition by bringing in newer Christmas movies but also bringing in the classics like “Mickey’s Christmas Carol”. As time grows closer to Christmas, they include more popular classical movies like “The Little Drummer Boy”. Although, I was disappointed that on the last day of their movie marathon they show “Meet the Robinsons” instead of a popular Christmas movie such as “It’s a Wonderful Life”.
Between Hallmark and Freeform, I would still choose Freeform because it provides family favorites and does not host as many cheesy movies like Hallmark does when they make their own.
Overall, I don’t think Freeform will be as successful as they have been in the past due to all the other rising TV companies and streaming apps, such as Netflix and Hulu. But between, Netflix, Hallmark, Lifetime, and now Freeform, it may be hard to leave the couch with so much to sit and watch for a while!