Earlier in the month, a lesbian kiss from a commercial that aired on the network sparked backlash from advocacy group One Million Moms, prompting Hallmark to pull the ad and lose its ties with Zola, the company that ran the ads in the first place.
Then, in another flip after backlash from viewers protesting the decision to pull the ad, Hallmark decided to begin airing the LGBTQ commercial again and issued an apology.
The strong viewership numbers that took Hallmark over CNN came in spite of Hallmark generating a lot of negative buzz in the lead-up to December 16-22.