Hallmark’s “Home & Family” Offers a Daily Dose of Norman Rockwell

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In television, when you have a 52-week-a-year production schedule you had better really like your job.  Thankfully for the cast and crew of Hallmark Channel’s daily chat show Home & Family, they do.  After a visit to the set its understandable why this close-knit group enjoys sharing their workload, unanimously agreeing its criminal they actually get paid to have so much fun. “You always hope to be on a good production, but that isn’t always the case,” co-host Debbie Matenopoulos told me during my recent visit to the show.  “Here there are 120 people on set and they are all good people you want to be friends with.  Big egos just don’t exist here, and I can tell you this is possibly the only place in Hollywood that they don’t!”

Filmed live-to-tape on a home-style set on the Universal Studios back lot, Home & Family combines celebrity interviews and performances with an array of lifestyle segments including DIY, cooking, fashion, travel, child care and pet care provided by the show’s enthusiastic personalities.

Matenopoulos, formerly of The View, who joined the show in its second season, co-hosts Home & Family with Mark Steines, formerly of Entertainment Tonight,who has been with Hallmark’s signature daytime program from day one.  (Matenopoulos and Steines are pictured at top.) Now, as the show enters its sixth season, Steines says he couldn’t be prouder of how it has grown.  “Our first celebrity guest was David Arquette, and back then the set looked barren, like Between Two Ferns,” he laughed, making a reference to Zach Galifianakis’ low-budget interview show on Funny or Die.  “The power blew so we lost the air-conditioning in the middle of that interview!”

For Steines it’s the fact his celebrity interviews don’t just center on his guests’ latest projects that he finds appealing.  Unlike on Entertainment Tonight, Home & Family allows its hosts to go a little more in-depth, in the process learning new things about their subjects.

“I love working here as it really does reflect everything I believe about family,” Beauty, Lifestyle and Fashion Editor Kym Douglas told me.  “My son Hunter appears regularly on the show with me and the people here are some of my closest friends.  I call Home & Family ‘a safe family haven’ where you can sit down and watch a show with something for everyone and it’s all clean and happy.  It’s very Norman Rockwell and I think we all need that at times.”

“I started on season two, co-hosting a few times,” said H&F DIY guru Paige Hemmis (pictured below).  “I had to wait for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to be over before I could join full time in season three.  [Hemmis was one of the cast of carpenters on EM:HE.]  Being on the road for 10 years, I was really looking forward to being in one place.  My husband Jason and I had been engaged for years, but never had time to get married.  Here I get to work in one place and they even offered to do my wedding, so itwas perfect life timing and I get to spend time with my furry kids!”

Hemmis’ weekly pet adoption segments gave rise to Hallmark Channel’s new Pet Initiative, details of which were announced at

Steve Gidlow

Steve Gidlow, a long-time columnist for MediaVillage ("Behind the Scenes in Hollywood"), has written about television and pop culture since 1994, beginning in Australia.  Since moving to Hollywood in 1997, Steve has focused on celebrity interv… read more