The search for “Mr. Christmas” continues!
Hallmark has renewed its first successful reality competition series, Searching for Mr. Christmasfor season two just weeks after season one ended, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal.
The news of Jonathan Bennett’s return to the search for Hallmark’s next Christmas movie star comes nearly two months after the first season of the competition premiered on October 31st on Hallmark+. The landmark series sees the 43-year-old actor and host travel across the country to find 10 potential candidates, giving aspiring actors the chance to “compete in a variety of fun challenges, with a Hallmark twist, to be crowned Hallmark’s next leading man and take home the title of ‘Mr. Christmas'”, according to the synopsis.
Hallmark is on the hunt for its next movie role Searching for Mr. Christmas Contest Series: Meet the Men!
Searching for Mr. Christmas‘ debut season also featured help from head judge Melissa Peterman, as well as a series of guest judges, all trying to “determine who has the most talent, heart, authenticity and charisma to be Hallmark’s next superstar.”
As for the show’s winner, he was awarded the performance of a lifetime: a starring role in one of Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas — courtesy of Hallmark itself.
Jonathan Bennett on ‘Finding Mr. Christmas’.
Kim Nunneley/Hallmark Media
Last season featured names like Elijah Malcomb, Ezra Moreland, and Hayden Maher, as the series brought together a former Texas Tech football player, a former Team USA athlete, a firefighter, and a Broadway student (among others) to see who would make a lasting impression and leave him in the acting business.
Before the winner was revealed during the Dec. 12 season 1 finale, Bennett spoke with PEOPLE about what makes someone a Hallmark leading man.
“People really need to step back and look at the contestants and say which one of these do I want to be the next Hallmark leading man? Because they all have so many amazing qualities,” he teased. “But there is one who has that thing in him, and I think people are starting to understand who that might be.”
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Jonathan Bennett is pictured with the cast of the first season of Finding Mr. Christmas.
Hallmark Media
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As for her take on the season one contestants, Peterman told PEOPLE at Hallmark Holiday Touchdown: The Chiefs’ Love Story the prime minister that every day she “changed her mind” about her choice.
“I love them all, but sometimes someone had a better day or a different one or they showed us something they hadn’t shown us before,” Peterman explained.
“There was someone anyone could fall in love with,” she added. “So some people will be, ‘Oh, shoot!’ and some people will be there, but in the end, I think they’ll fall in love with the winner.”
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Moreland, who won, has since starred alongside Jessica Lowndes Happy holidayswhich premiered on December 21st on the Hallmark Channel. Fans will have to stay tuned for the next iteration Searching for Mr. Christmas hits the lane again.
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Source: HIS Education