‘Dateline’ Crime Correspondent Wrote Hit Hallmark Romance: ‘So Much Fun’

Longtime NBC “Dateline” correspondent Andrea Canning has an uncanny ability to go from reporting on gruesome “true crimes” to writing stories of true love at the drop of a hat. She does it so well that she even wrote Hallmark Channel‘s top-rated movie of 2023, “A Merry Scottish Christmas” with former “Party of Five” co-stars Lacey Chabert and Scott Wolf.

Canning’s colleagues on “The Today Show” celebrated her success on August 13, 2024, when she stopped by to promote the latest episode of her “Dateline True Crime Weekly” podcast that launched in May, per NBC, and wound up also talking about her screenwriting for Hallmark.

Meteorologist Al Roker, who has produced and appeared in his own “Morning Show Mystery” franchise for Hallmark, noted how wild it is that Canning can switch gears from reporting on heinous crimes to telling love stories.

“Well, it’s two ends of the spectrum,” she replied. “It’s ‘Dateline,’ diabolical. And then it’s happy, happy Hallmark!”

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Andrea Canning Says She Was Asked by Hallmark to Give First Draft of ‘Merry Scottish Christmas’ a Complete ‘Makeover’

Canning began working with Hallmark in 2019, per IMDb, when she began co-writing the “Ruby Herring Mysteries” starring Taylor Cole and Stephen Huszar. She even appeared in two of the movies.

She has also written many rom-coms for Hallmark including 2020’s “USS Christmas” and “Christmas She Wrote,” 2021’s “Two for the Win” and “South Beach Love,” 2022’s “Christmas Bedtime Story” and 2023’s “A Paris Proposal.”

“I love it — I love writing the Hallmark rom-com movies,” Canning told “The Today Show” third-hour cast, including Roker, Sheinelle Jones, Craig Melvin, and Dylan Dreyer. “It’s so much fun and it stretches another muscle, and I’ve had some cameos in them, so that’s been fun.”

She also added, “And Al does the ‘Morning Show Mysteries’ on Hallmark and we love that, too!”

“It’s feel-good,” Roker replied, and then quipped, “Somebody dies, but it’s feel-good!”

Canning then shared how proud she was of her latest movie, telling the group, “I wrote, last Christmas, ‘A Merry Scottish Christmas,’ which was the number one movie of the year on Hallmark with Lacey (Chabert) and Scott (Wolf).”

The movie was not only the top-rated movie of the year on Hallmark, but across cable TV, per Forbes. According to press materials provided by Hallmark, the movie broke viewing records and, within days of its November 18 premiere, had become the most-watched cable movie of the year.

In December, Canning said on the “Ryemarkable Mom” podcast that the idea for the movie was someone else’s, but that Hallmark “asked me to come in and give it an overhaul and, you know, work on it and get it across the finish line. I did not write the first draft, so I came in and gave it a whole fresh … makeover.”

Canning said she got to know Chabert and Wolf during the process and was impressed by how kind they were, explaining, “You know when you just aren’t sure (how someone is going to act)? They could just not have been nicer. And they were giving me their ideas for the script, things that they wanted to work in.”

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Andrea Canning Often Writes Her Hallmark Scripts While on the Road With ‘Dateline’

In 2020, with several Hallmark movies under her belt, Canning said on the Hallmarkies podcast that she initially thought that “writing Hallmark movies will be easy.”

“They’re sort of all, kind of have similar themes and what-not,” Canning said she figured at the time. “Then I’m like, ‘No, it is not easy, it really isn’t.’ I don’t even know how to explain why it isn’t, it just isn’t.”

“So, you know, it took a while to get that (skill),” she continued, “but Hallmark was so patient with me, which I’m just so grateful to them for … allowing me to take the notes and run with the notes and get more notes, and not, like, replacing me — which they easily could have done at any point!”

In addition to screenwriting and reporting for NBC, Canning is also the mom of six young kids — five daughters and a son — with her husband, U.S. Marine Corps reservist and F-18 fighter pilot Lt. Colonel Tony Bancroft, per NBC.

Because her home life is a bit chaotic, Canning told “Ryemarkable Mom” host Liz Woods that she tends to write Hallmark scripts in “bits and pieces,” often while she’s on the road for a “Dateline” story.

“Once I’ve done all my research for ‘Dateline’ and I feel comfortable that I’m ready for my interviews, then I’ll transition over to the movies in my spare time or if I’m in the hotel room at night,” Canning said.

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