Ho ho ho! Lifetime Channel might be on Santa’s naughty list this year.
This season’s “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” lineup of 12 new holiday movies includes “A Cowboy Christmas Romance,” a Christmas flick à la “Yellowstone” that includes a first for the franchise: a steamy sex scene.
“We think that there’s an audience out there that’s hungry for grown-up romance, and we’re looking forward to adding some smolder to the usual holiday sugar and spice,” Tia Maggini, senior vice president of scripted content at Lifetime, told Variety. “We love trying new things, and we’re excited about this new ‘first’ for us for a holiday movie.”
The movie, starring Jana Kramer and Adam Senn, follows a real estate “closer” who begrudgingly returns to her Arizona hometown just before Christmas. There, she sets out to convince a dreamy rancher to sell his family’s land. Anyone who’s watched “Yellowstone” knows ranchers don’t take kindly to their land being threatened, so naturally there’s conflict and angst from the start, but ultimately — as the title hints — the cowboy and “closer” become entangled in a Christmas romance.
”Grey’s Anatomy” star Sarah Drew wrote the film, and she’s hyping it up via her Instagram. “Buckle up for a steamy, sexy Christmas flick written and executive produced by yours truly. Do you like Yellowstone? Sexy Cowboys? Family drama? Christmas? Do you like to cry and gush? Then you’ll love #acowboychristmasromance,” she wrote. “I had so much fun writing and executive producing this.”
Drew also joined Kramer during Monday’s episode of iHeartRadio’s “Whine Down” podcast, and discussed how the steamy scenes were a must.
“It all came out so beautifully, but especially the scene in the kitchen,” Drew said. “I had written in the stage directions — He pulls her up onto the counter, he shoves things off the table — I put it all in there and I was like, don’t take the steam and the sex away from me. I wrote it on purpose. I want it there.”
Kramer told Drew that “A Cowboy Christmas Romance” was unlike any of the Lifetime movies she’d done in the past. The actor, who’s starred in eight of the network’s films to date, was relieved that this one felt like it had some raw honesty in it that reflected her life. She continued that she was surprised that Lifetime was running with the script as Drew wrote it but said the network didn’t make any cuts.
“Spoiler alert — he lays me down on some hay, and then we, you know,” Kramer continued, laughing. “Obviously, it’s still Lifetime, it’s still family. But it was pushing limits there, too. …
They didn’t cut anything. I was so happy that they really left it all in there.”
Kramer also noted that the word “Christmas” is barely mentioned in the film. “There’s no gingerbread bake-off, there’s no festival, that town that’s going to hell and you gotta save it,” she said. “Those cozy feelings happen, but it’s all mixed up with real family stuff and identity stuff and relationship stuff.”
“A Cowboy Christmas Romance” debuts on Dec. 9.
