Hallmark Channel’s romantic period drama When Calls the Heart has been going strong for 12 seasons. That’s a virtual eternity in an era when many shows only last a few years. How to explain the success of the heartwarming series? A lot of it has to do with Erin Krakow, who has played Elizabeth Thornton on all 130+ episodes, says her co-star Jack Wagner.
Jack Wagner sings Erin Krakow’s praises
Jack Wagner has played Bill Avery on When Calls the Heart since 2014. He credits series star Krakow for helping turn the show into the beloved phenomenon it is today. He compared her to some of his other co-stars, including Heather Locklear from Melrose Place and Katherine Kelly Lang from The Bold and the Beautiful.
“I think the success of [When Calls the Heart] has to do with Erin Krakow, our lead actress. I’ve always felt that way about any show that I’ve been on,” Wagner recently told Us Weekly. “It was Heather from Melrose, it was Bold and the Beautiful with Katherine Kelly Lang.”
“When it trickles down from people who root for and love your lead actress and your lead actor, they invest,” he added. “It is an investment. They feel like they know us, and we feel like we know them.”
Could ‘When Calls the Heart’ survive without Elizabeth?
Krakow’s character is at the center of When Cals the Heart. Over a dozen seasons, the show has followed her journey, which began when she arrived in a small frontier town to take a job as a schoolteacher. The pampered city girl fell in love with Hope Valley and its resident Mountie, Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing). Elizabeth and Jack later married, though their happiness was short-lived.
Jack was killed in a training accident and soon after Elizabeth gave birth to a son, whom she raised as a single mother. She went on to fall for saloon owner turned politician Lucas Bouchard (Chris McNally), though she eventually called off their engagement. Not long after, she began a relationship with another Mountie, Nathan Grant (Kevin McGarry). They’re now in the honeymoon phase of their courtship, with many viewers eagerly anticipating their engagement, perhaps before the end of season 12.
With so many of the show’s storylines revolving around Elizabeth, would it be possible for When Calls the Heart to survive without her character? Creator Brian Bird thinks it could, though he hopes Krakow remains committed to the show.
“I do,” Bird told Soaps.com in 2024 when asked whether When Calls the Heart could exist without Elizabeth. “Not that I would ever want to have to do that, or that any of us would ever want to have to do that. We do think [Erin] is the absolute source of everything on When Calls the Heart and we love her. We hope we don’t wear her out and tire her of this whole thing. She could be there forever as far as I’m concerned.”
“The biggest star of the show is the community,” Bird added. “People have fallen in love with the community and then they have these focal points with specific characters that they’re deeply in love with. And I do believe that the show could continue if we had to by morphing, if necessary.”
When Calls the Heart airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel. Episodes stream the next day on Hallmark+.
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