Candace Cameron Bure Opens Up About Why She Left Hallmark for GAF

Getty Candace Cameron Bure in 2019

Candace Cameron Bure recently opened up about why she left a long-time relationship with Hallmark to join Great American Media. The chance at a larger executive role was a big part of the motivation, along with the timing of her contract negotiations with Hallmark.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Bure’s Contract with Hallmark Was Expiring When GAF Was Just Beginning

Originally called GAC, the company has recently changed its name to GAM, with the channels Great American Family (GAF) and Great American Living (GAL.) It was launched with Bill Abbott at the helm. Abbott was formerly the CEO of the Hallmark Channel.

In an interview with Variety, Bure revealed that the timing worked out perfectly for her to leave Hallmark and join Great American Family. It just so happened that my contract was expiring when Great American Family started up,” she said. “So we did not start having those discussions until we were well into negotiations with Hallmark Channel for renewing. And as every business person knows, you’ve got to do what’s right for contracts. It didn’t work out with Hallmark and so we started talking to Bill [Abbott].”

She revealed that her contract doesn’t include a set number of movies per year that she stars in, but it does involve her serving in an executive role off camera too.

Variety reported that unnamed sources told them Bure made about $1 million a year at Hallmark, and GAF “was able to nearly double that.”

Her Past with Abbott & His ‘Champion’ Attitude for Others Also Influenced Her

She added that Abbott was the first person to hire her after she had taken a long break from working in order to raise her kids.

“Any mom knows that when they take a break from working, they’re nervous to come back — if it’s 10 years later, 20 years later…” she told Variety. “There’s a real fear there for a lot of people, so I felt like Bill gave me my first shot coming back into the business and I will always be grateful to him for that.”

She said her long relationship with Abbott strongly influenced her decision.

“He’s been a champion for others through his whole career and that’s what has made him an incredible president and CEO of a company — because he knows he’s not doing it himself. It takes a team and it takes loyalty and it takes people doing their best,” she told Variety. “…I trust what Bill has done over the years and that really means a lot to me. That’s also why a move to Great American Family was a good move for me because of the long standing relationship with Bill.”

During a TCA (Television Critics Association) event on August 10, Hallmark executives commented on all the changes happening with actors signing contracts with different networks.

Variety reported that Lisa Hamilton Daly, EVP of programming for Hallmark Media, told journalists:

We’ve kept a lot of our talent under options, say for Christmas movies. We’re looking for new talent all the time. I think there’s a lot of talent out there that we’ve worked with in the past that GAC is now working with, but I think that we also are constantly trying to evolve the talent pool that we’re working with. We have, I think, retained almost everybody that we’re really excited to have. So that’s where we are.

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