The Lifetime TV network is previewing the first ever sex scene in one of its upcoming Christmas movies this year.
"A Cowboy Christmas Romance" is one of twelve new Christmas movies belonging to the network’s annual "It’s a Wonderful Lifetime" holiday series. It will premiere on the channel on Dec. 9.
The new film stars actor Adam Senn and actress Jana Kramer, who plays a real estate agent that has to return to her hometown in Arizona and reclaim land from a local rancher. In the process, she reconnects with her family and falls in love.
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The actress recently spoke about the "first" Lifetime Christmas sex scene during her "Whine Down" podcast.
Speaking to her guest Sarah Drew, one of the writers of the film, Kramer described the scene, saying, "Spoiler alert — he lays me down on some hay, and then we, you know. Obviously, it’s still Lifetime, it’s still family. But it was pushing limits there, too… They didn’t cut anything. I was so happy that they really left it all in there."
Drew praised the scene as well, adding, "It all came out so beautifully, but especially the scene in the kitchen. I had written into the stage directions, ‘He pulls her up onto the counter, he shoves things off the table.’"
"I put it all in there, so I was like, ‘Don’t take the steam and the sex away from me. I wrote it on purpose, I want it in there,’" the writer said.
Kramer also noted that "A Cowboy Christmas Romance" was groundbreaking as far as network Christmas movies go for other reasons. She explained, "We barely mention the word ‘Christmas.’ There’s no gingerbread bake-off, there’s no festival, that town that’s going to hell and you gotta save it."
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"The only thing was, like, [my character] coming back and seeing Adam or his character… Those cozy feelings happen, but it’s all mixed up with real family stuff and identity stuff and relationship stuff," the actress added.
Senior VP of scripted content at Lifetime, Tia Maggini, told Hollywood outlet Variety this week that they’ve added the adult-oriented scene to the film, because they wanted to heat up their usual holiday fare.
She said, "We think that there’s an audience out there that’s hungry for grown-up romance, and we’re looking forward to adding some smolder to the usual holiday sugar and spice."
"We love trying new things, and we’re excited about this new ‘first’ for us for a holiday movie," the executive added.
Despite Maggini’s claims, recent studies have shown that young audiences would like to see less sex in movies and on TV. According to UCLA’s "Teens and Screens" report, 51.5% of adolescents would prefer to see more content that portrays platonic relationships and close friendships.
Also, the study found that 44.4% of youth surveyed felt that romance in media was "overused."
Fox News' Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
