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NEW YORK, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Jonathan Bennett says his established relationship with Hallmark, along with his reality TV experience, led to creating the festive new competition series, Finding Mr. Christmas. Airing Thursdays on Hallmark+, the show follows 10 aspiring actors as they compete in holiday-themed challenges for the grand prize of the lead role in a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.
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"I've hosted over 600 episodes of reality television competition series," Bennett, who developed Finding Mr. Christmas with Ben Roy, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"I've been a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother and Dancing With the Stars. I've been a contestant on reality television. I love reality television, and the idea to create a reality show that lets America watch the process of finding the next Hallmark hunk, the next Hallmark movie star, seemed just like a no-brainer."
Bennett, 43, is also known for starring in the original 2004 movie. Mean Girls, and the soap opera, All My Children, as well as hosting Cake Wars, Cupcake Wars and Halloween Wars.
He also headlined numerous Hallmark holiday films, including The Holiday Sitter, the channel's first LGBTQ-themed Christmas romance.
"My friend Ben Roy came to me and was like, 'I have this idea. Let's talk about it,'" Bennett recalled how Finding Mr. Christmas first came about and why he was eager to host it.
"We started flushing [the idea] out, and we're like, 'Oh, why haven't we done this yet?' And I brought it to Hallmark and i think their exact words were, 'Why haven't we done this yet?' And I was like, 'Exactly!' And so Finding Mr. Christmas was born."
Bennett said contestants on the show didn't initially know what they were signing up for.
"We couldn't say that it was for Hallmark. We couldn't say what the prize was, and we couldn't say what the show was. The requisite was, 'Do you like Christmas movies and have you ever wanted to be in one?' And that's it," he added.
"We had it all top secret, locked because we didn't want it to leak," Bennett said. "So, the first time they realized what the show was was the first episode when I walk in and say, 'Here's what you're playing for. Here's the prize, and here's what we're doing,' and they all were just like, 'What?' So, it was courageous of them to just step into it."
Reba and Young Sheldon actress Melissa Peterman, 53, is the lead judge, along with several other rotating panelists who assess the contestants based on their energy, warmth, authenticity and capacity for Joy.
"She's like your tipsy aunt at a Christmas party," Bennett laughed. "She just says stuff."
He said he hopes viewers see the show as a fun and uplifting respite in troubled times.
"I feel so proud of the show, I feel so proud of Hallmark Channel for doing this. I feel so proud of my 10 boys who came, had the courage to be vulnerable, had the courage to show up and do things they've never done before -- and had the courage to do it on national television," Bennett said.
"They saw, they conquered and all them left winners, and they all grew in some way as a human and learned something about themselves," he added. "So, my hat's off to all of our contestants because I couldn't have done what they did."
Bennett can also be seen in The Groomsmen Trilogy, three new Hallmark+ romantic-comedies that co-star Tyler Hynes and B.J. Britt.
