Amanda Kloots Stars in New Holiday Special ‘Fit for Christmas’

Feel the burn, feel the love

Amanda Kloots, co-host of CBS’s weekday chat show The Talk, not only stars but has a big creative hand in the new TV movie Fit for Christmas. Also an exec producer and co-creator of the story (with screenwriter Anna White), Kloots revisits her earlier career by playing a fitness instructor who opposes the redevelopment of a local community centre in Mistletoe, Montana. Wouldn’t you know it—she ends up getting all flirtatious with the very same businessman (Hallmark vet Paul Greene) who has designs on the property. All My Children alum Rebecca Budig also stars for director Jessica Harmon (herself an actress, whom you’ve seen in such B.C.-shot TV dramas as The 100 and iZombie). CBS“We went on hiatus [from The Talk] in August,” Kloots explains, “and I pretty much flew a couple of days later off to Vancouver to shoot the film on my hiatus, finished the movie, came back and started season 13 of The Talk. No rest.” Still, that was fine with Kloots, who was excited to see her idea come to life before her eyes. 

“I helped conceptualize the entire movie right up until we were filming,” she reports, “and it was amazing. There was a day on set—I’ll never forget it—when we were filming at the Mistletoe Inn, and it was so perfectly Christmas. I looked around, and I just couldn’t believe it was happening. I literally pinched myself, because I remembered being in my bed in July of 2020 thinking of this idea at three in the morning; then having it come to life, it was just so beautiful. And it just felt like magic.” CBSLeading man Paul Greene has worked with writer Anna White before (on last year’s Christmas CEO), but he says, “What made this so different was working with Amanda in this way, knowing that this was her first experience in this way. It just had this crackling newness and possibility to it that was really unique. It was very in-the-moment, spontaneous and exciting. 

“There was this chemistry and friendship between all of us actors, really,” adds Greene, “and especially between Amanda and myself, like, from the first minute. We were just like long-lost friends, and that translated really quickly into a feeling of having each other’s backs in the scenes and improvising.” CBSPartially because of her opportunity with Fit for Christmas, Kloots—who tragically lost her husband, Broadway star Nick Cordero, to COVID in 2020—reflects: “I can’t believe what I’m doing right now, when I look at my life and how much has changed, especially in the last three years. I just am constantly blown away by the idea of how life can change so quickly, and how dreams can come true.”  

Fit for Christmas premieres Sunday, December 4 on CBS