WATCH: Trailer released for Lifetime’s gay holiday film ‘The Christmas Setup’
Fran Drescher also stars in Lifetime's first-ever LGBTQ holiday film
The trailer for Lifetime’s first-ever gay Christmas film The Christmas Setup has arrived and it’s exactly what you’d expect.
Touted as a feel-good LGBTQ holiday romance, The Christmas Setup stars real-life married couple Blake Lee (Parks and Recreation) and Ben Lewis (Arrow), alongside The Nanny‘s Fran Drescher and Ellen Wong (GLOW).
The movie follows Hugo (Lewis), a New York corporate lawyer, who heads back home to Milwaukee with his best friend Madelyn (Wong) to spend time with his meddlesome matchmaking mom, Kate (Drescher).
As expected for a holiday film, Kate arranges for Hugo to run into Patrick (Lee), his high school friend and secret crush, who has recently returned to the Midwest after working in Silicon Valley for years.
From there it’s classic holiday film fare, which means there’s an inevitable dilemma forcing Hugo to choose between rural love with Patrick or his big city job.
The Christmas Setup airs Dec. 12 on Lifetime. Watch the trailer below:
Joining The Christmas Setup this festive season are two other LGBTQ-themed holiday films, Paramount’s Dashing in December and Hallmark’s The Christmas House.
Dashing in December airs Dec. 13 on Paramount Network, Logo, Pop, and TV Land, and features the ever-popular plot of a big city professional heading home for the holidays and falling in love.
New York City financier Wyatt (Peter Porte, The Young and the Restless) returns to his rural hometown to try and get his mother Deb (Andie MacDowell) to sell the family’s ranch and its Winter Wonderland business. Instead, he meets handsome ranch hand Heath (Juan Pablo Di Pace, Dallas, Mamma Mia!). (Watch the trailer here!)
Last week, Hallmark Channel aired its first-ever LGBTQ holiday film with The Christmas House, starring Mean Girls‘ Jonathan Bennett as Brandon, one half of a gay couple with husband Jake, played by Brad Harder, who head home for the holidays while awaiting news about the adoption of their first child.
Both Hallmark and Lifetime have previously been criticized for a lack of LGBTQ representation in their annual holiday line-ups.
Hallmark Channel has also received criticism from right-wing groups such as the American Family Association’s “One Million Moms” project, which famously called for a boycott after the channel aired a commercial from the online wedding registry Zola featuring a lesbian couple.
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