When Merry Thanksgiving Weekend and Countdown to Christmas collide on Hallmark Channel, it’s a big win for Hallmark fans. Hallmarkies and Hynies are in for a big treat with An Unexpected Christmas, premiering Friday, November 26 at 8pm ET/PT. This delightful holiday movie stars Bethany Joy Lenz (One Tree Hill, Five Star Christmas) and Tyler Hynes (It Was Always You, Roadhouse Romance) as exes who are forced to pretend that they’re still together, with very unexpected consequences.
Jamie (Hynes) is a speech writer with a big Christmas deadline. He travels home for Christmas only to run into his ex-girlfriend Emily (Lenz) at the airport. His family doesn’t know that they’re not together anymore so Jamie offers to get the Governor to Emily’s marketing event if she pretends that they’re still together for his family’s sake.
The script for An Unexpected Christmas was written by Paul Campbell and it’s utterly brilliant. Listen closely to Hynes’ dialogue in particular; Campbell wrote some of the most clever dialogue I’ve ever heard in a Hallmark Channel movie and Hynes’ delivery is spot-on.
WATCH: Preview for An Unexpected Christmas on Hallmark Channel
The chemistry between Lenz and Hynes is electric. Jamie and Emily clearly have a lot of history and his family adores her, but there are things that Jamie needs to work out. As they get deeper and deeper in their deception, they both start to see things they hadn’t seen before. An Unexpected Christmas also stars Alison Wandzura, Lynda Boyd, Paul McGillion and Elan Ross Gibson.
An Unexpected Christmas premieres November 26 at 8pm ET/PT, immediately following the premiere of Christmas CEO at 6pm ET/PT. Both all-new movies will be available the following day on Hallmark on Demand, and they will also air throughout the Countdown to Christmas 2021 season.
