“The Way Home” is coming back … home.
Last month, Variety broke the news that the hit series was moving to Hallmark+, the company’s new streaming service, for its third season, debuting in January. It was set to make its linear debut in the fall.
However, “after hearing from the many passionate, loyal fans,” the show will now premiere on Hallmark Channel on Friday, January 3, at 9 p.m, and will stream the next day on Hallmark+. Devoted audience members of “The Way Home” had been grumbling — particularly in Facebook groups — about the idea of being forced to subscribe to another streaming service, with some even threatening to boycott the show. This rollout will continue all season.
Hallmark+ launched in September with multiple original series, including “The Chicken Sisters” and “Celebrations With Lacey Chabert,” and many originals debuted in the following months, including “The Groomsmen” and “Love on the Danube” trilogies, Jonathan Bennett’s “Finding Mr. Christmas” and “Mistletoe Murders.”
The news of “The Way Home” returning to Hallmark’s linear channel was first announced by cast members Andie MacDowell and Chyler Leigh on Friday during the “Look Behind the Lens” panel at the Hallmark Christmas Experience in Kansas City.
As previously reported, Julia Tomasone and Jordan Doww join the cast for Season 3 as the teen versions of Del (MacDowell) and Colton (Jefferson Brown), respectively, as the show will head back in time to 1974, the year they first met as teens. Additionally, Devin Cecchetto joins the cast as Evelyn Goodwin, a young girl Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) meets in the past who could complicate the present.
Season 3 will debut where Season 2 left off, with Kat (Leigh), finally reunited with her brother Jacob (Spencer Macpherson), set to walk into the Landry home.