After widespread internet rumors in 2018 that TBS had canceled the marathon, Turner Broadcasting, TNT, and TBS all had to issue statements stating that, in fact, the marathon lives on. You could understand that when TBS was very slow to publish the schedule for 2019, A Christmas Story fans were worried.
Fear not, for TBS has confirmed that "24 Hours of A Christmas Story" will continue in 2019!
"A Christmas Story" earned its marathon through its own success and fan following. The movie was originally a small indie film made in 1983 that had very little fanfare at the beginning. Turner Broadcasting had maintained ownership of the broadcasting rights and, starting in the early 1990, began airing the film increasingly on its networks TBS, TNT, and TCM. In 1995, it was aired over the 3 different channels a combined 6 times from December 24th to 26th.
Those 6 viewing were so successful that in 1996 Turner increased it to 8 different showings.
However, it was in 1997 that due to the ever-increasing popularity of the movie (and merchandise sales) that TNT began airing a 24-hour marathon officially titled "24 Hours of A Christmas Story." The marathon would begin either at 7 or 8pm Eastern on Christmas Eve and run for a total of 12 airings. In 2004, when TNT switched to a predominantly drama television format, TBS took over the marathon. It was estimated that in 2002 that 38.4 million people tuned in at one point or another. In 2008 that estimate increased to 54.4 million.
The film was so popular that in 2014 and 2015, Turner decided to broadcast the marathons on BOTH TBS and TNT! They staggered the showings one hour apart so that you wouldn't have the same exact scene on both channels and could pick up at any point on either network. This was not done in 2016 but was done on both channels in 2017 and 2018... and will do so again in 2019, although with the 9pm start time, it appears the movies will run simultaneously and not staggered like previous years.
One of my favorite Christmas memories (that you can read in my upcoming "Holiday Memories Series" post) was this marathon. One of the best things about this marathon was that every year I attempted to watch the entire movie ONCE over the span of 24 hours. It didn't even have to be in order or anything... just a complete viewing of the movie over a 24 hour period.
You can catch 24 straight hours of the beloved movie starting 7:00PM Eastern on December 24th on TBS. The marathon runs through Christmas Day and the final showing is 5:00PM Eastern on the 25th. The marathon will run on TNT starting at 9pm on December 24th running through the final showing at 7pm on Christmas Day.
Be careful, or you'll shoot your eye out!
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