Heavy Detective pulls together clues to a mystery
Sleuthers, listen up! Hallmark is about to serve up a new romance-mystery series called “Crimson Hearts Collide” with an unexpected twist. When the eight-episode series premieres on August 24, 2023, it won’t be on its Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. Rather, the show will be Hallmark’s first scripted podcast in its history, according to a press announcement, featuring “an all-star cast.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Actor Keith D. Robinson Returns to Hallmark in New Podcast Series
HallmarkKeith Robinson and Malinda Williams recording “Crimson Hearts Collide”
“Crimson Hearts Collide” will be an extension of Hallmark’s Mahogany brand, which started in the 90s as a card line created to reflect and celebrate Black culture. It was expanded by Hallmark Media in 2022 with movies written and produced to do the same.
Two of the eight “Crimson Hearts Collide” episodes will drop on August 24 wherever podcasts are available, and then the last six will be released weekly each Thursday.
“Soul Food” actress Malinda Williams will play Sonora Williams, a top New York City lawyer who learns she’s inherited a farm in Alabama from her now-deceased uncle — a huge surprise given that she grew up in foster care thinking she had no blood relatives. To get answers, the synopsis reads, she must “meet the people who keep the farm running, including the handsome cowboy Zeke Summers, who immediately captures her attention.”
Summers is played by Keith D. Robinson, who co-starred in the 2021 Hallmark mystery “Redemption in Cherry Springs” and in both “Sister Swap” movies that year with Ashley Williams and Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Comedian Amanda Seales, best known for the HBO series “Insecure,” is also part of the cast.
“I’m thrilled for fans to experience the heart of our powerful Hallmark storytelling in this new, accessible and rapidly growing medium,” said Hallmark Media’s senior vice president of programming development Toni Judkins, who oversees Mahogany programming. “Listeners will fall in love with the enchanting story of ‘Crimson Hearts Collide,’ which is sure to invite more people into the passionate, vibrant world of Mahogany programming.”
Hallmark’s New Series Leverages Skyrocketing Popularity of Podcasts
With its new series, Hallmark hopes to tap into the ever-growing market of podcast listeners. According to marketing data organization Demand Sage, there are 100 million active podcast listeners in the U.S. in 2023.
True crime is the most popular genre but, according to Time Out, fiction podcasts focused on science fiction, mystery and horror stories are gaining in popularity. In 2021, podcast producer Acast reported that listenership to its fiction podcasts were up 427 percent, more than any other genre. PodNews reported in 2022, that fiction podcasts were by far the most likely type of podcast to be listened to completion, meaning that listeners were drawn in enough to listen to the entire story.
Another silver lining of launching a podcast right now is that actors who cannot appear in or promote film or TV projects during the SAG-AFTRA strike are allowed to produce and appear on podcasts as long as they don’t talk about past or future work, which “Crimson Hearts Collide” will not.
Robinson celebrated the upcoming podcast series with an Instagram post on August 18, sharing the announcement and writing, “Had a blast alongside @malinsworld @amandaseales the rest of our talented cast on this new journey with @hallmarkmahogany and @ayr_media ✨️!”
Williams did the same, writing, “Been working on some amazing, uplifting new projects of late… All good news! 🔊 @hallmarkmahogany and @ayr_media first ever scripted PODCAST starring alongside @keithsings @amandaseales and a host of super talented voice actors.