When Hallmark premieres its newest mystery movie on March 13, 2025 — “Mystery Island: Winner Takes All” — the tropical whodunit will air on Hallmark Mystery, the network’s cable channel devoted specifically to family-friendly crime-solving series and shows. But in a scheduling plot twist that has surprised and confused some fans, the premiere will simulcast on Hallmark Channel.
“Wait what?” one fan wrote when Hallmark Channel’s account promoted the movie on its Facebook page. “Is it on Hallmark Channel or Hallmark Mystery?”
The social media team replied, “We wanted to give our Hallmark Channel audience a chance to see our mysteries! We hope you can watch Thursday at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel!”
The programming decision has some fans perplexed, trying to solve the real-life caper of why the two channels would air the same movie at the same time.
‘Aurora Teagarden’ Movie Will Also Get a Simulcast Premiere in April
Hallmark Mystery — which was rebranded in March 2024 after spending nearly 20 years as Hallmark Movies & Mysteries — is known for its round-the-clock whodunit movies and reruns of classic crime series like “Murder, She Wrote” and “Matlock.”
Meanwhile, Hallmark Channel, the most-watched entertainment cable network of 2024, rarely strays from its diet of original rom-coms, family dramas and reruns of family-friendly comedy series including “Reba” and “Golden Girls.”
Occasionally, the network will air original crime-solving movies after they’ve aired first on Hallmark Mystery. For instance, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale of Three Letters” made its Hallmark Channel debut in September, two months after its July 12 premiere on the mystery channel.
But the simulcast of “Mystery Island: Winner Takes All,” a sequel to the “Mystery Island” movie that premiered on Hallmark Mystery in September 2023, is unusual — and it’s throwing some fans off, with one fan in a Reddit thread about the move calling it “worrying.”
The person wrote, “Will it really be on both? And why the heck put it on both?”
One fan theorized, “I like the idea of simulcasting. It’s a way of boosting the film rating.”
When Hallmark Channel promoted the upcoming premiere on social media, other fans expressed confusion, including one who wrote, “Why isn’t a mystery movie on Hallmark Mysteries? They don’t have many new movies on the mystery channel.”
It’s possible that Hallmark is testing the waters to see how new mysteries perform on its primary channel and boosts overall ratings. The network will conduct a similar 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.
Fans Have Worried About a Lack of New Content on Hallmark Mystery in 2025
Hallmark Mystery is off to a slow start in 2025, with only a handful of original movie premieres. In January, it aired the cable debut of Jodie Sweetin and Stephen Huszar’s “The Jane Mysteries: A Deadly Prescription,” which originally premiered on Hallmark+ in the fall of 2024.
In early February, the channel premiered Alison Sweeney’s latest “Hannah Swensen Mystery,” called “Reality Bites.” The March 13 premiere of “Mystery Island: Winner Takes All” marks only its third premiere of the year on the channel.
Sleuthers have begun to express their dismay over the lack of new content, including one wrote on the channel’s Instagram page, “It feels like there are a lot less mysteries so far this year :(”
On March 11, many fans liked a comment on Hallmark Mystery’s Facebook page from someone who wrote that the channel “has been totally neglected. They focus on Hallmark and Hallmark+ and do nothing for Mystery.”
When someone else asked whether Sarah Drew’s Hallmark+ series “Mistletoe Murders” will air on cable, especially since it’s been renewed for a second season, Hallmark’s social media team replied, “Right now, we are focused on bringing new, original content to our streaming community on Hallmark + and exposing that audience to new genres and formats.”
But there are signs that new Hallmark Mystery movies are on the way. The second of two “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” movies — “To The Moon and Back” — is due for a 2025 release, Production Weekly listed two “Hannah Swensen” movies were being filmed in the fall of 2024 signaling that another is likely in post-production, and the “True Justice” cast kicked off 2025 by filming two new movies.
Meanwhile, “Mystery Island” screenwriter John Christian Plummer told TVShowAce that the March 13 premiere — starring Elizabeth Henstridge, Charlie Weber and Kristin Booth — won’t be the last in the franchise.
Comments
Hallmark Mystery Fans Surprised by Scheduling Plot Twist: ‘Wait, What?’