Less than a year after canceling its rodeo-themed show Ride, Hallmark Channel has announced it is creating a new TV series.
The network will adapt the 2020 bestselling novel The Chicken Sisters into a show starring Lea Thompson, Schuyler Fisk, Wendie Malick, and Genevieve Angelson.
“New lil fam,” wrote Schuyler Fisk in an Instagram post.
The novel, written by KJ Dell’Antonia, won a coveted spot in Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club soon after it was released in 2020.
New Hallmark TV series
According to Hallmark, “The Chicken Sisters is a family drama dipped in southern charm and served up with a saucy side of romance. The setting is the fictional town of Merinac, where a generations-old rift between dueling fried chicken restaurants – Mimi’s and Frannie’s – has left the founders’ families fractured and the locals taking sides. When popular cooking competition show Kitchen Clash comes to town, this could be the recipe for ending this feud once and for all. But things are fixing to heat up both inside and outside of the kitchen as the reality show spotlight causes sparks to fly as secrets are spilled and feathers get ruffled.”
The story is based in part on a real-life rivalry between two Kansas restaurants, Chicken Mary’s and Chicken Annie’s. Author KJ Dell’Antonia said she was always fascinated by the feud.
“… The chicken restaurants, I mean, we only ate at Chicken Annie’s because we were a Chicken Annie’s family and that’s how it seemed to work,” Dell’Antonia told a local news outlet. “And I just loved the ritual of it, and also, I was also fascinated and curious, but I guess I never asked — why were there two, right? That were not apparently related but had to be related. So, it stuck in my mind forever and ever and ever, and … when I got around to doing it this time, I guess, I just sort of went looking for a story that fit that. And at some point my mom was like, ‘Do you want to know the real story behind Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s?’ and I was like, ‘No, no, no! That’s a terrible idea, do not tell me the real story.’ So, whatever the real story is, and I’m sure it’s more than what they have on their website — which I have read at this point — I still don’t know it.”
Hallmark Channel
The Chicken Sisters is the third new TV series to premiere on Hallmark Channel in the past two years.
In January 2023, Hallmark premiered The Way Home, a time-traveling family drama starring Andie MacDowell, Chyler Leigh, and Sadie Laflamme-Snow. In March 2023, the network introduced the rodeo-themed series Ride, starring Nancy Travis.
The Way Home found immediate success and was renewed for both a second and a third season. Ride was less popular and Hallmark canceled it after one season with little fanfare.
Hallmark has not yet given a release date for The Chicken Sisters. We will update this story as more information becomes available.
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Less than a year after canceling its rodeo-themed show Ride, Hallmark Channel has announced it is creating a new TV series.
The network will adapt the 2020 bestselling novel The Chicken Sisters into a show starring Lea Thompson, Schuyler Fisk, Wendie Malick, and Genevieve Angelson.
“New lil fam,” wrote Schuyler Fisk in an Instagram post.
The novel, written by KJ Dell’Antonia, won a coveted spot in Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club soon after it was released in 2020.
New Hallmark TV series
According to Hallmark, “The Chicken Sisters is a family drama dipped in southern charm and served up with a saucy side of romance. The setting is the fictional town of Merinac, where a generations-old rift between dueling fried chicken restaurants – Mimi’s and Frannie’s – has left the founders’ families fractured and the locals taking sides. When popular cooking competition show Kitchen Clash comes to town, this could be the recipe for ending this feud once and for all. But things are fixing to heat up both inside and outside of the kitchen as the reality show spotlight causes sparks to fly as secrets are spilled and feathers get ruffled.”
The story is based in part on a real-life rivalry between two Kansas restaurants, Chicken Mary’s and Chicken Annie’s. Author KJ Dell’Antonia said she was always fascinated by the feud.
“… The chicken restaurants, I mean, we only ate at Chicken Annie’s because we were a Chicken Annie’s family and that’s how it seemed to work,” Dell’Antonia told a local news outlet. “And I just loved the ritual of it, and also, I was also fascinated and curious, but I guess I never asked — why were there two, right? That were not apparently related but had to be related. So, it stuck in my mind forever and ever and ever, and … when I got around to doing it this time, I guess, I just sort of went looking for a story that fit that. And at some point my mom was like, ‘Do you want to know the real story behind Chicken Annie’s and Chicken Mary’s?’ and I was like, ‘No, no, no! That’s a terrible idea, do not tell me the real story.’ So, whatever the real story is, and I’m sure it’s more than what they have on their website — which I have read at this point — I still don’t know it.”
Hallmark Channel
The Chicken Sisters is the third new TV series to premiere on Hallmark Channel in the past two years.
In January 2023, Hallmark premiered The Way Home, a time-traveling family drama starring Andie MacDowell, Chyler Leigh, and Sadie Laflamme-Snow. In March 2023, the network introduced the rodeo-themed series Ride, starring Nancy Travis.
The Way Home found immediate success and was renewed for both a second and a third season. Ride was less popular and Hallmark canceled it after one season with little fanfare.
Hallmark has not yet given a release date for The Chicken Sisters. We will update this story as more information becomes available.
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