Jana Kramer and Adam Senn Star In Steamy New Lifetime Movie, ‘A Cowboy Christmas Romance’

Lifetime’s newest holiday film, A Cowboy Christmas Romance, takes viewers into the scenic setting of an Arizona ranch town as co-stars Jana Kramer and Adam Senn introduce a steamier and more mature romance to the network. 

A Cowboy Christmas Movie

The story finds real estate closer Lexie Crenshaw (Kramer) reluctantly returning to her hometown of Tubac, Arizona one week before Christmas for a work trip. While attempting to convince a rancher named Coby Mason (Senn) to sell his family’s land, Crenshaw is reunited with the struggles she left behind 10 years ago involving her father (Bruce Thomas) and brothers and finds herself tangled in a bit of romance.

Sarah Drew, who serves as the writer and executive producer of the Lifetime movie, decided to push the bounds when creating the narrative and ended up writing in Lifetime’s very first Christmas movie containing a sex scene.

“There is such an appetite for Christmas movies. And for different audiences who like different kinds of Christmas movies, we’ve never given them a ‘sexy romance novel’ Christmas movie that feels grounded, real and adult,” Drew told Yahoo Entertainment.

A Steamy Scene

Kramer and Drew sat down together to discuss the film further on a recent episode of iHeart’s Whine Down podcast.

During their conversation, the actress shared her initial thoughts on the script and finding out that she would be involved in some relatively steamy scenes while pregnant with her first child with fiancé Allan Russell. 

“When I read it, I was like, This is going to be interesting.’ How are we going to do this with the baby belly?’ And so, we’re on this — spoiler alert — he lays me down on some hay and then I’m like, and then we, you know. And then, obviously, it’s still Lifetime, it’s still family, but it was pushing the limits there too. But when they cut and then the next morning — the outtake, I was like, ‘We made a baby!’”

Luckily, Drew admitted she was pleased with the final outcome of the scenes that pushed the envelope a bit compared to the typical Lifetime movies. 

“It all came out so beautifully,” Drew told Kramer. “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 was like, ’Oh yeah, no, I put it all in there.’ I was like, ‘Don’t take the steam and the sex away from me. I wrote it on purpose.’”

Kramer and Drew both appeared to be “surprised” yet “so happy” that nothing was cut from these scenes.  

“How sad would that have been in that scene just got cut?” Drew added.

Tia Maggini, senior vice president of scripted programming at Lifetime told Yahoo Entertainment that the network was “eager” to branch out and “try something a little different” and A Cowboy Christmas Romance presented itself as the perfect opportunity.

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“There are a lot of perceived rules of what a Christmas movie can and can’t be — and sometimes I wonder if we made those rules up ourselves. So it’s kind of fun to try something a little different and see if the audience responds,” said Maggini.

The Subject Of An SNL Skit

As a result of the more mature storyline, A Cowboy Christmas Romance became a popular topic on a recent airing of Saturday Night Live. 

“Next week, Lifetime will air their first Christmas movie featuring a sex scene,” Michael Che began during the show’s “Weekend Update” segment with Colin Jost. “The sex scene will finally explain why Santa named that one reindeer Vixen.”

“That’s a weird name for a reindeer, man,” he added. 

This prompted several members of the cast and crew to respond, including Drew who reposted the show’s clip on social media and joked about how “Lifetime officially made the naughty list.”

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In the days leading up to the movie’s official premiere, Kramer took to social media to share a behind-the-scenes look at the filming process. She showed off her bump while posing on set with her family as well as some fellow cast members.

Where Can I Stream A Cowboy Christmas Romance?

A Cowboy Christmas Romance premiered on Saturday, Dec. 9 on Lifetime and is now available to watch on TV Everywhere partners such as Philo or Frndly, and also Video On Demand through your cable or satellite providers. 

Additionally, the movie is currently streaming for free on mylifetime.com.