Heavy/Getty Hallmark Media CEO Wonya Lucas and frequent Hallmark actress Holly Robinson Peete at the AAFCA Special Achievement Awards in April 2023
In a surprise announcement on August 8, 2023, Hallmark Media announced that its much-celebrated CEO, Wonya Lucas, will step down from her role by the end of the year, prompting a great deal of media and fan speculation about the unexpected shakeup.
In her first interview since the announcement, the longtime TV executive told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that after three years on the job, she feels she’s “done all the things I set out to do” and fulfilled the mission given to her by her boss, Hallmark’s corporate CEO Mike Perry. She also decided she does not want to relocate from her native Atlanta, where she’d been allowed to work for much of the pandemic.
Here’s what you need to know:
Hallmark Media CEO Wonya Lucas Did Not Want to Uproot Her Life & Move to Los Angeles
GettyHallmark Media President and CEO at the 2022 “Countdown to Christmas” kickoff
Lucas, 62, has overseen Hallmark’s programming since 2020, when longtime CEO Bill Abbott parted ways with the company following a public relations crisis in which Hallmark Channel pulled and then reinstated ads featuring a same-sex wedding. He has since gone on to launch the Great American Family network.
During her tenure, Lucas has been widely praised by Hallmark execs and in the media for diversifying the network’s content and expanding its reach, and was inducted into both the Cable Hall of Fame and the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame this past spring, per NextTV.
In her interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lucas said her ties to Atlanta were a big reason she’s decided to leave Hallmark. An Atlanta native, she not only raised her two daughters there, but her family has “deep roots” there. Her dad, Bill Lucas, was Major League Baseball’s first-ever Black General Manager, guiding the Atlanta Braves in the 70s, her uncle was legendary Braves player Hank Aaron, and her mom was a local schoolteacher who managed to earn a seat on Turner Broadcasting’s board of directors.
Joining Hallmark during the pandemic, Lucas was allowed to largely stay in Atlanta, working remotely while attending big network events like Hallmark’s 2022 “Countdown to Christmas” New York kickoff in 2022 and accompanying Hallmark Channel stars on a field trip to the company’s Kansas City headquarters this summer.
But when the company began requiring last fall that employees physically be in the office at least part of each week, Lucas realized she couldn’t make that commitment.
“I had to take inventory of my life from a personal perspective,” Lucas told the Journal-Constitution. “I don’t want to leave the East Coast and Atlanta. I have deep roots here. I want to spend time with my mom and my family.”
“I really do love this brand,” she said of Hallmark, saying it had been part of her life since she was little. “I grew up near Greenbriar Mall and would go to the Hallmark store and read the cards while my mom shopped.”
Wonya Lucas & Mike Perry Feel Good About Changes Made at Hallmark Media Over Past 3 Years
GettyHallmark Media CEO Wonya Lucas, actress Ginna Claire Mason and Hallmark President and CEO Mike Perry with Rockettes Sydney Mesher and JoJo Carmichael at the 2022 kickoff of Hallmark Channel’s “Countdown To Christmas” in New York City
Lucas says she’ll leave the top spot at Hallmark Media feeling good about the changes she inspired during her tenure, ensuring that its programming now reflects a broader spectrum of people and stories.
“For us it is about showing that there are common elements to every love story, regardless of who you are,” she told the Wall Street Journal in December.
When she arrived at Hallmark in 2020, she told the Journal-Constitution, “we were playing in a very narrow space.”
“We needed to deepen and broaden the brand,” she continued. “We diversified our storytelling beyond just race and ethnicity. (We) have leaned into humor. We’ve tackled neurodiversity. We had a movie on autism (‘Our Christmas Journey’). We had a film with two leads with Down Syndrome (‘Color My World With Love’). We had (‘The Jewish Contract’) about a Jewish wedding ceremony.”
Hallmark has also expanded its storylines to be more inclusive of LGTBQ+ relationships, including its first movie focused on the love story of a gay couple with “The Holiday Sitter” last December.
In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable on August 7, Perry had only positive feedback about Lucas’ work over the past three years. Upon hiring her to take the helm, he said, the first priority “was really about broadening the content and the stories that we tell here, and making sure that we did that in a more diverse and inclusive way. I think both of us feel very good about that.”
According to Hallmark’s August 8 announcement, Perry will work closely with Lucas and the Hallmark Media executive leadership team leading day-to-day operations while completing “the process of Lucas’ transition.” It’s not clear if Perry will step into the role permanently.
As for Lucas’ plans, she’ll serve on Hallmark’s Board of Directors and on several other boards, but told the Journal-Constitution she doesn’t have a new job lined up.
“If something interesting comes up, I’m not shutting the door,” Lucas said. “For now, I’m living in the moment.”