Hallmark Programming Exec Lisa Hamilton Daly Exits After Her Position Eliminated

Hallmark Media said in a statement on Monday that the company is aligning its consumer-facing touchpoints, including content, under a single leader. The change comes three months after Daly and Hallmark were sued for age discrimination, defamation and wrongful termination by former casting agent Penny Perry.

Hallmark eliminates Lisa Hamilton Daly’s role with the company

Hallmark announced in a statement on Monday that Lisa Hamilton Daly’s role has been eliminated, saying:

Hallmark is aligning its consumer-facing touchpoints, including content, under a single leader, chief brand officer Darren Abbott, with a focus and expertise in the expression of the Hallmark brand to consumers — from product to experiences and now content, across multiple platforms. Darren has an innate understanding of the Hallmark brand and paired with his leadership and vision, will ensure our content aligns to the promise of our legacy brand.

In this move, the position of EVP, programming was eliminated and Lisa Hamilton Daly will depart the company. Lisa is an extremely talented creative leader and we are grateful for her many contributions to Hallmark Media including expanding our storytelling and characters in new ways.

Daly and Hallmark sued for age discrimination

According to Deadline, this change comes three months after Lisa Hamilton Daly and Hallmark were sued for age discrimination, defamation and wrongful termination by former casting agent Penny Perry. At that stage, Perry, 79, alleged she was forced out by Daly “who wanted to move her out of the company due to her age and her complaints that the company was refusing to accommodate her life-limiting health conditions.

In that lawsuit, SVP of Programming and Development Randy Pope and HR executive Paul Hodgkinson were listed as co-defendants.

The lawsuit filed on October 9 claimed that Hamilton Daly had said that Holly Robinson Peete (60) and Lacey Chabert, 42, were “old talent” that needed to be “replaced.” Meanwhile, she allegedly said:

Lacey’s getting older and we have to find someone like her to replace her as she gets older.

Meanwhile, referring to Robinson Peete, Hamilton Daly allegedly said:

No one wants her because she’s too expensive and getting too old. She can’t play leading roles anymore.

Moreover, other actors included in the lawsuit were Alison Sweeney, Catherine Bell, Elizabeth Mitchell, Autumn Reeser, Nikki Deloach, Kelly Martin, Rachel Boston, Cameron Mathison, Brennan Elliott, Paul Green, Eric Close and Terry Hatcher.

At that time, the “feel-good” network defended itself in a statement:

Lacey and Holly have a home at Hallmark. We do not generally comment on pending litigation. And while we deny these outrageous allegations, we are not going to discuss an employment relationship in the media.