LIVE POLL: Most Anticipated Christmas or Holiday Themed 2026 Great American Family Movie

@Peter_pbn​,

The Great American Christmas 2026 event features movie premiering on the Great American Pure Flix Channel [October 8, 2026 through December 17, 2026].

[prnewswire.com/news-releases/karen-kingsburys-the-christmas-ring-to-premiere-as-part-of-great-american-christmas-2026-302875708.html]

It is not my claim, it is Great American Media's claim. While, I understand your point and agree it defies common sense. I do think the title passes some type of legal bar for them to make the claim, and I find the title has company and follows a industry practice with a small group of "original programming" claimants that seem to share the distinction of debuting elsewhere.

They use terms like "new,", first," "exclusive," and "premiere" to describe the inclusion of the title in their 2026 Great American Christmas line-up of eighteen 2026 original programming premieres in their press release. Plus, they use the same terms in their individual press release about the title. Further, online at the title's landing page, they state it is the "World Television Premiere of Karen Kingsbury’s The Christmas Ring, streaming exclusively on Great American Pure Flix, Thursday, November 5." 

After doing many of these original programming polls, I found that many other streaming services claim titles to be "original programming movies" when they have debuted elsewhere or in a different media distribution channel. I have found that less than 5% of original programing titles are suspect in this way, premiering a year or more before elsewhere.

For example, Hallmark for its July 4th, 2026 kick-off of its annual Christmas in July event (featuring 4 Hallmark original movie premieres), the channel offered an exclusive Hallmark original programming movie, called 'Christmas Under Construction,' a title that debuted two years earlier as a streaming only offering on Hulu exclusively under another name, 'Renovation Romance' that was Hulu streaming title for almost two full years, before Hulu stopped streaming the title, 'Renovation Romance' shortly before the exclusive only contract was executed with Hallmark under a new title name. 

While upwards of 10% are less blantant in their claims of original programming, opening first a couple weeks earlier in limited theaters or a select cities run for a short engagement. For example, The Man with the Bag will open in theaters on November 16th, two weeks before its Prime "original programming" debut online two weeks later on December 2nd.

It is for these reasons I have decided to include The Christmas Ring and other titles based on the company's claim. Although, I usually include the relevant details, so poll takers can form their own opinion, which I neglected to do here. I also couldn't find any reported box office, so I was unsure whether the title, The Christmas Ring got pulled prior to release. I have revised the answer option's description to: Great American Pure Flix Premiere: November 5, 2026 with a preceding theaterical release on November 6, 2025 and VOD streaming release on November 28, 2025. I also thought with only 365 IMDb votes that its theatrical release fell at most into more into the select cities category and may have been limited to a VOD release only or pirated downloads only, since it only got a single vote per day over the past year. It also has no reported box office on the websites, The Numbers or BoxOfficeMijo.

In conclusion, I think the 'Karen Kingsbury’s The Christmas Ring' original programming claim is an example of industry practice of claiming titles to be "original" programming, when common sense would indicate otherwise (while still fulfilling some legal requirements to be called technically "original programming"). In reality, I suspect the legal standard is that the title needs to be exclusive to that network over some period going forward and is premiering for the first time in a particular distribution channel for it be called "original" movie for that network. 

@Jessica​ Thanks