By Emily Safron
Hunks. Happiness. Hillarious. Heart. Those are the four words actor and host of Finding Mr. Christmas, Jonathan Bennett, used to describe season two of the Hallmark reality show.
The show, which aired on October 27, centers on ten men vying for their chance to star in a Hallmark movie. Over the course of ten episodes, the contestants will stay in Hallmark’s Christmas House and compete for the opportunity to be the channel’s next leading man.
The winner will be crowned Mr. Christmas, and his movie will air the weekend immediately following the finale.
“We took the things we liked about season one and just dialed them up ten notches. The challenges are bigger, the hunks are hunkier, it’s all the things you loved about season one turned up, but we’ve also tailored it not only for the reality competition fan, but also for the fans that love Hallmark Christmas movies,” said Bennett.
The season kicks off with a bang in the first episode when all ten contestants are tasked with skiing down a hill while doing an acting scene with Hallmark star Janel Parrish. This episode 1 is called “The Search of Mr. Christmas”. In what Bennett has deemed his favorite moment from the season, he shared that “it is so funny to watch them have to ski down the hill while doing a scene, and a lot of them wipe out and can recover and get back up and keep the scene going. I just think it’s so fun to watch.” Challenges later in the season include horseback riding and hanging 30 feet in the air from a crane. “We don’t play in season two,” Bennett laughed. “We get right into it.”
Episode 2 is called “Reindeer Games” where the hunks team up to launch gifts into Santa’s sleigh, then soar sky-high as reindeer in an Entertainment Weekly photo shoot.
Episode 3 if called “Riding into Romance, where the hunks get personal while building gingerbread houses, sharing what Christmas means to them. Then, Alison Sweeney joins as they saddle up for a cowboy scene, where animal co-stars lead to some unexpected performances.
When asked about advice for anyone hoping to throw their Santa hat in the ring to be the next Mr. Christmas, Bennett shared, “It’s literally so cliché, but just be yourself. The more you are yourself, and you bring all your quirkiness, all the weird and cool things about you, the more you bring that to these roles, the more we are going to see who you are, and the more we’re going to fall in love with you. That’s when we want to use you in movies. Bring yourself to the role.”
In what Bennett refers to as a “Hallmark star-studded lineup”, guest stars in the second season include Heather Hemmens, Hunter King, Ali Sweeney, Sharon Lawrence, Erin Krakow, Kristoffer Polaha and Ashley Williams.
Christmas is Hallmark’s biggest season and Bennett shared that he’s especially looking forward to attending the Hallmark Kansas City experience and the Hallmark Christmas Cruise where he gets to interact with the fans who they’re making these movies for. “That’s always the reward of working all year. You get to see the fans’ reactions.”
Can’t get enough of Hallmark reality shows? Bennett shared that ‘they’ve talked back and forth about Mrs. Christmas, but he really wants to do Mr. Romance. I want to do the summer version of Finding Mr. Christmas. Think romance novel, island, maybe Hawaii, everyone is in board shorts and surfing and doing challenges like that.”
His co-host and Judge on the show is the one and only comedic actress Melissa Peterman, who also stars in some Hallmark movies herself and also in Happy’s Place with her BFF Reba McEntire.
