First came the fake Hallmark movie. Now, the real Chiefs rom-com is here.

"No one’s ever done this science experiment before," "Holiday Touchdown" star Tyler Hynes tells Yahoo Entertainment of the NFL-Hallmark partnership.

Hunter King, left, and Tyler Hynes
Hunter King, left, and Tyler Hynes star in "Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story," the first official partnership between Hallmark and the NFL. (Joshua Haines/Hallmark Media)

A Kansas City Chiefs romance takes center stage when Hallmark Channel’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story premieres this weekend.

One of Hallmark’s tentpole movies this season, Holiday Touchdown follows a Chiefs superfan (played by Hunter King) and the team’s director of fan engagement (Hallmark staple Tyler Hynes) as they gradually fall in love at Christmastime. (Don’t expect much similarity to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s real-life romance, though. You can go to Lifetime for that.) The TV movie, which premieres Nov. 30 and is produced by Skydance Sports, marks the first official collaboration between Hallmark and the NFL.

Filmed on location in Kansas City over two weeks in July, which included several days at Arrowhead Stadium, Holiday Touchdown is the ultimate Chiefs fan’s dream, with cameos by head coach Andy Reid; players Mecole Hardman Jr., Trey Smith, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and George Karlaftis; and Donna Kelce, Travis’s mom, who plays a supporting character.

But why put Hallmark, the perennial destination for romance, on the same playing field as the NFL, which still draws significantly more male viewers despite increased female interest? The crossover potential is reflected in the numbers. More than half of Hallmark’s viewers during the holidays also watch sports, and 24% of its audience during that period was male, according to Variety.

“Whether it's the Swifties, whether it's Chiefs Kingdom, whether it's Hallmark’s Hallmarkies, there's a commonality among them all,” Hynes told Yahoo Entertainment. It’s their shared passion for their fandoms. “There's [also] an earnestness that seems to be unique and authentic, and combining them the way that we have feels like an opportunity to include everybody.”

Holiday Touchdown isn’t the first time the Chiefs have dipped their toe into the Hallmark well. In January (a few months after Taylor and Travis went public), the team produced a fake romantic movie trailer, Falling for Football, recruiting Hynes and Janel Parrish to add a Hallmark touch. It was initially meant as a one-off to tee up the start of the Chiefs’ playoff run, but instead stirred up an appetite for more.

“When we think [about] entertainment, sports and culture, I'm not sure there's a disconnect anymore, which is a really wonderful thing to see for fans and consumers,” Lara Krug, vice president and chief marketing officer of the Kansas City Chiefs, said at the Television Critics Association press tour in July.

“What we did around the playoffs in building [the] trailer, it was in some ways a love story to Hallmark from the Chiefs of what they do so well telling these beautiful stories. It's exciting to actually see that come full circle,” she said.

That trailer spoof, which Hallmark saw and immediately responded to, ended up accelerating the Hallmark-NFL partnership. “The second we really sat down and started talking about what this could be, we instantly knew there was a massive opportunity to make something truly special and magical here,” Samantha DiPippo, senior vice president of programming at Hallmark Media, said at the TCA press tour.

Marrying the two major brands to make Holiday Touchdown feel as cohesive and seamless as possible was a collaborative team effort, which included many late-night texts about Kansas City-specific details, Krug noted.

The movie, penned by go-to Hallmark scribe (and San Francisco 49ers fan) Julie Sherman Wolfe, weaves light Chiefs lore into the fabric of the story and leans into game day superstitions involving a family’s vintage lucky Chiefs hat. Any other sports lingo or football terminology is kept to a minimum. A love story is the movie’s core focus, after all.

“I was so happy that they chose the kind of story that they went with,” Hynes said. “It’s a really lovely, grounded story that feels like it’s in service of all audiences.”

It was during Hynes’s daily encounters with fans in and around Kansas City while filming when he felt the enthusiasm surrounding the movie.

“There are a lot of Hallmark fans who are big Chiefs fans and a lot of Hallmark fans who are big football fans, so it’s fascinating,” the Canadian actor said. “Both brands are in this similar place in culture and in the world, and have a huge crossover audience.”

“It’s an interesting cocktail,” Hynes said. “No one’s ever done this science experiment before, so we’ll see what the results are.”

Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story premieres Saturday, Nov. 30, at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark Channel.