When Calls the Heart is a popular show on the Hallmark Channel. Recently indicted actress Lori Loughlin was a leading actress in the show but after her arrest in March as part of Operation Varsity Blues, she was fired. Season six had just started on February 24. Loughlin was arrested on March 12 and by March 14 the network formally announced her departure. At that time the show went on hiatus to do some “retooling”, which means the network executives were figuring out what to do with the remaining shows of the season.

Loughlin had a leading role as a small town mayor and cafe owner. Her character has been edited out and some reshooting has been done. It’s been announced that the episode that was to have aired on March 17 will now air on May 5 with a second episode following on May 6.

“Life throws all of us painful curveballs, and the only way to survive is to talk right through them with courage, grace, a forgiving spirit, and most of all, hope,” executive producer Brad Bird, 61, tweeted Tuesday. “Many of you have wondered what the future holds for our cast and crew, and for the citizens of Hope Valley. Your care and concern mean the world to us.”

The Hallmark Channel movies are wildly popular with women who tune in with hopes of some very predictable entertainment. The movie formulas are all the same. A single working woman meets a single man and they eventually end up together. There is no sex, no violence, no swearing, and the endings are always happy. The Hallmark Channel is a perfect place for someone looking for mindless distraction packaged as a love story. Hallmark Channel’s sister channel, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, also featured Lori Loughlin in a series of movies called Garage Sale Mysteries. So, Loughlin was in deep with the network.

Like so many others, I confess I use Hallmark movies as a distraction from politics and current events, too. While watching the Saturday night prime time movie, I saw an announcement that When Calls the Heart has been picked up for Season 7. I don’t watch the series but I know there were lots of happy fans when that announcement was made.

Days after a return date was set for When Calls the Heart, Hallmark Channel has ordered a seventh season.

Series star Erin Krakow made the announcement in a special video message that aired Saturday evening during the premiere of Hallmark’s original movie, Bottled With Love. The newly ordered seventh season will launch in 2020.

Lori Loughlin and her husband are both facing some tough decisions. Do they settle their cases with prosecutors and take whatever deal they can cut? Or, do they continue on as though they can beat this scandal? The L.A. Times reports that the couple began scheming with corrupt college admissions counselor Rick Singer in April 2016 for daughter Isabella and then for Olivia in 2017.

Singer told the couple that Isabella’s academic qualifications were “at or just below the low end of USC’s admission,” according to the affidavit. Authorities allege the couple agreed to bribe USC senior associate athletic director Donna Heinel, who also was charged in the scheme, to designate their daughter as an athletic recruit on the crew team.

After their older daughter’s admission was secured, they repeated the scam in 2017 with their younger daughter, Olivia Jade, authorities allege. Singer told the couple he would present their daughter as a crew coxswain for the L.A. Marina Club team and requested they send an “action picture.” The couple sent him a photo of Olivia Jade rowing on a machine, according to the affidavit.

An L.A. attorney offered his opinion to the L.A. Times. He thinks Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli are running out of time.

Louis Shapiro, a prominent L.A. attorney, said time might be of the essence for Loughlin as she decides what to do.

With more parents agreeing to plead guilty in the hopes of reduced punishment, this might create a window for the actress.

“I don’t think she has the luxury of time,” Shapiro said. “The prosecution is talking deal or no deal now.”

Stay tuned. This drama has lots of episodes left.

#Hearties, did you see @erinkrakow’s BIG WCTH news during #BottledWithLove? You asked for it, and we’re excited to announce #Season7WillBeHeaven! ❤️ 7️⃣ Don’t miss the return of WCTH with a special two-night back-to-back premiere event Sunday, May 5 & Monday, May 6 at 8pm/7c! pic.twitter.com/GmVF39Cgms

— Hallmark Channel (@hallmarkchannel) April 14, 2019