Hallmark has decided to try and erase its history with actress Lori Loughlin and has edited the actress out of the rest of season six of “When Calls The Heart.”
The network announced Wednesday that the series will finally be back on the air Sunday, May 5 at 8 p.m. after the show was pulled from the schedule last month shortly after the 54-year-old actress and her husband Mossimo Giannulli were named in the national college admission scam called Operation Varsity Blues, per Entertainment Weekly. (RELATED: REPORT: 7 FBI Agents Arrested Felicity Huffman At Gunpoint)
The two allegedly paid $500,000 in bribes to get their daughters, Olivia Jade and Isabella Giannulli, into the University of Southern California (USC) by pretending they were competitive rowing recruits.(RELATED: Lori Loughlin’s Daughter Bragged About Going To School To Party)
Olivia Jade Giannulli, Lori Loughlin and Isabella Rose Giannulli attend The Women’s Cancer Research Fund’s An Unforgettable Evening Benefit Gala at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on February 28, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
Hallmark previously announced that it had severed all ties with the former “Full House” star and would only say that it was evaluating “all creative options” for the show. (RELATED: Lori Loughlin Released After Paying $1 Million Bond)
At the time, one of those options was to remove Loughlin, who played Abigail, the Mayor of Hope Valley, from the rest of the episodes of season six. However, several other shots for the series featuring Loughlin had already taken place.
The decision was reportedly made to re-edit the remaining six episodes of the season and re-shoot some of the scenes to edit the actress out of the show.
According to sources with knowledge:
Removing Loughlin from the majority of the season required some highly creative editing, as well as some minor reshoots. As a result, one fewer episode will be offered in season 6, which means viewers will receive six episodes instead of seven. (Three episodes from season 6 aired prior to the unplanned hiatus, and the first proved to be the highest-rated premiere in Hallmark history, netting 3.6 million viewers in Live+3, ranking behind only The Walking Dead for the week.)
As previously reported, on Tuesday a federal grand jury indicted the actress and her husband on additional charges of fraud and money laundering for their alleged part in the national college admission scam. Loughlin and Giannulli now face a total of one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and honest services mail and wire fraud with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.