Before joining Chicago Fire, Jocelyn Hudon starred in the lead role of Hallmark’s longest-running show, the spinoff When Hope Calls. She appeared there for one season before disappearing from the series altogether. Years later, she returned to it as a guest star on the franchise that brought her back into the spotlight.
From Orphan Sisters to Spinoff Leads
“When Calls the Heart” premiered on Hallmark in 2014, based on the book series by Janette Oke. It follows a teacher who moves to a small mining town in early 20th-century Canada. The show became the network’s most popular property, spawning multiple spinoffs.
The two leads first showed up on the show in Season 6, in a Christmas special from 2018. The pair were long-lost orphan sisters who met again as grown women in Hope Valley. That episode served as a backdoor pilot for the first spinoff, When Hope Calls.
Brookfield was where Lillian and Grace came back to manage an orphanage, and the new series followed their return there. The show gave each sister her own romantic troubles as they worked to keep the orphanage running.
A Streaming Venture Without Reports
“When Hope Calls” launched on Hallmark’s streaming platform, Hallmark Movies Now (later renamed Hallmark+). The goal was simple: convert fans into subscribers. Hallmark never released reports on the show’s performance.
Instead of airing the episodes itself, the company placed them on its cable channel. Later, Great American Family, a rival family-friendly media company, acquired the show for its second season.
The deal kept When Hope Calls going, yet it brought about big shifts because of clashing schedules. By the close of Season 1, Grace, played by Hudon, took a long journey to England to assist Helen in locating her grandfather.
The Christmas special could not be filmed by Hudon, so it was made clear that Grace went to London off-screen to start a new orphanage. It aired in 2025, with the main cast having already left for new projects. New faces carried the season while the remaining leads were written out entirely.
A Departure Without a Statement
There was no statement from Hudon when she departed When Hope Calls, and her exit came quietly, with the show continuing on without her.
After that point, Hudon kept appearing in many shows, moving from 9-1-1 to Dave, though it was Chicago Fire that finally gave her a series long enough to settle into.
She has grown into a major figure across the Chicago series, with appearances in Chicago Med in 2025 and Chicago P.D. in 2026. These cameos helped establish her presence before she moved to the main show.
| Show | Platform | Year |
|---|---|---|
| When Calls the Heart | Hallmark cable | 2014–present |
| When Hope Calls | Hallmark+ | 2021–2025 |
| When Hope Calls | Great American Family | 2025–present |
| Chicago Fire | NBC | 2024–present |
A Hallmark spinoff had to be sold to a rival network just to stay alive, and its tale turns out to be stranger than any work of fiction. Midway through its run, its lead actress vanished, only to resurface years later as a guest star on an entirely separate series.
The show’s destiny hangs in doubt, though Hallmark has never issued any numbers to prove its failure. The story of When Hope Calls now sits as a minor aside, a short turn before she reached her true place.
Source material: “Before Chicago Fire, Jocelyn Hudon Starred In A Popular Hallmark Channel Series,” TVLine.
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