Lori Loughlin is returning to acting in her first gig since the 2019 college admissions scandal, reprising her “When Calls the Heart” character, Abigail Stanton, in the second season of the spin-off series “When Hope Calls.”
GAC Family released a sneak peek of the a two-part season premiere for the series "When Hopes Calls." In the 35-second clip, the first look into the season briefly shows Abigail (Loughlin) walking up to a large Christmas tree in town alongside her son Cody (Carter Ryan) to admire its beauty before having a heartfelt exchange.
Comments were turned off on the YouTube clip.
It was announced last month that Loughlin would be returning to the small screen for the first time in years. She will be seen in the two-part season premiere airing on Dec. 18. Previously, “When Hope Calls” aired its first season on Hallmark’s streaming platform, Hallmark Movies Now, but it was moved to a new network, GAC Family.
The 57-year-old’s daughter, Olivia Jade, expressed her happiness earlier this month about her mom’s return to acting.
“I’m super excited for her,” her daughter told Entertainment Tonight. “That’s all I have to say.”
The actor last portrayed Abigail on the sixth season of Hallmark’s “When Calls the Heart” before she was let go from the series amid her involvement in the admissions scandal. The Hallmark Channel cut ties with the actor in March 2019, with the channel's parent company Crown Media releasing a statement that read in part, "We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin and have stopped development of all productions that air on the Crown Media Family Network channels involving Lori Loughlin, including 'Garage Sale Mysteries,' an independent third party production."
She was also let go from the final season of Netflix’s “Full House” reboot, “Fuller House.”
Loughlin and her husband, Mossomi Giannulli, admitted to paying $500,000 in order to help their daughters Olivia and Isabella get admitted to the University of Southern California by falsely portraying them as rowing recruits. The actor plead guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud in addition to receiving a $150,000 fine and 100 hours of community service required to complete upon her release from prison.
Giannulli, who also plead guilty to an additional charge of conspiracy to commit honest services wire and mail fraud, served a five-month sentence, while Loughlin was sentenced to a two-month prison term and was released at the end of December last year. She will continue to be under supervised release for two years after her served sentence.
The actor also served a short prison sentence for her own involvement in the college admissions scandal. The “Desperate Housewives” star landed her first television role since the scandal last November, set to star opposite actor Zack Gottsagen in an upcoming baseball-centric comedy.