Hallmark Cancels The High Chaparral
Bid for Younger Market Replaces Rough and Ready with Soft and Cuddly

Hallmark's earlier claims to the contrary, they have now canceled The High Chaparral along with the whole Rough and Ready Saturday format.  According to industry publications, they are making an effort to lower the age of their market share and do not believe that Westerns pull well with the under-40 crowd.  They have no desire to attract the over-50 crowd because they have too many of them already and apparently people over 50 are too old to buy much stuff anyway.  

The Hallmark Channel has been broadcasting The High Chaparral for the last few years, most recently as a part of their Rough and Ready Saturday Western line-up.  In 2003 they were airing two episodes a week, but for most of 2004 it has been one episode from noon to one.  As you can see from the schedule below, their performance has been hit or miss.  We have not received an explanation from Hallmark for why some episodes have been omitted, some of which have not been broadcast in many years.  Special programming events have frequently pre-empted it altogether.  No Westerns were scheduled from mid-November through the end of the 2004, presumably due to holiday programming.  Rough and Ready Saturday resumed in January of 2005 but was reduced to every other Saturday.  In April they cut it back to once a month.  In May they canceled it altogether.  Hallmark's public relations department has said that Rough and Ready Saturday will be returning, but as of January 2006, looks very unlikely.

Feel free to let Hallmark know your feelings about The High Chaparral  and Western programming in general
through the feedback link below, but it is likely that they have moved on to other target markets. 
They now prefer Soft and Cuddly to Rough and Ready. 
The Hallmark Channel Viewer Feedback

2004/05 Hallmark Episode Schedule

No HC scheduled or shown after April 16, 2005

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