Candace Cameron Bure to Launch New Great American Family Series

Great American Family is ready to get a little mysterious with help from Candace Cameron Bure.

The network announced on Tuesday, February 27, that it will be launching Great American Mysteries, a movie franchise that will star Great American talent.

To help launch the series, Great American Family chose Candace Cameron Bure and Ginny & Georgia star Aaron Ashmore to star in the first movie titled The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker.

Based on Candace Havens’ best-selling novel of the same name, The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Winemaker follows Ainsley McGregor (Cameron Bure), a former Chicago criminologist who returns to her Texas hometown.

Instead of pursuing full-time crime work, she has decided to open a market for artisans titled Bless Your Arts. Ainsley, however, cannot deny her first love is crime solving and accepts a position teaching a criminology class at the local community college. Her skills quickly become a major asset to the small town when a murder occurs at a winery owned by her friend, who now stands accused of the crime.

“There’s nothing more exciting for me than being back in the cozy mystery genre,” Cameron Bure said in a statement to Deadline. “Mysteries are so fun to watch and to try to solve. I hope our faithful fans and audiences fall in love with the townspeople of Sweet River, Texas and Ainsley McGregor’s keen eye for solving mysteries.”

The actress added, “In this next-level mystery series, the family dynamics and developing relationships alone should keep you coming back for more!”

This isn’t the first time Cameron Bure has appeared in a mystery series. During her 13 years at Hallmark, the actress helmed Hallmark’s Movies & Mysteries’ Aurora Teagarden Mysteries franchise, appearing as librarian-turned-amateur-sleuth Aurora Teagarden in 18 films before her departure.

Cameron Bure announced in April 2022 that she was moving to Great American Media, where she would have a more active role at the company and help oversee and curate programming for the networks as a whole.

Related: Hallmark Mystery Movie Franchises by the Numbers

The Hallmark Mystery channel has won over fans with its variety of thrilling franchises over the years — and the list just keeps getting longer. Candace Cameron Bure, Lacey Chabert, Alison Sweeney and Holly Robinson Peete are just some of the names that have had their own movie series on the network over the years. […]

“I’m very excited to develop heartwarming family and faith-filled programming and make the kind of stories my family and I love to watch,” Cameron Bure said in a statement at the time. “I am constantly looking for ways that I can inspire people to live life with purpose. GAC fits my brand perfectly; we share a vision of creating compelling wholesome content for an audience who wants to watch programming for and with the whole family.”

In a separate interview about her career move, Cameron Bure said Hallmark had become “basically a completely different network” due to leadership changes.

“I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” she told WSJ. Magazine in November 2022, while seemingly commenting on Hallmark’s same-sex story lines.

She later clarified her comments via social media that she would never “intentionally want to offend or hurt anyone” and insisted she has “great love and affection for all people.”