Naughty & Nice: Shock Jock and Small Town Radio Doc Make Christmas Magic

The synopsis of the UP Channel holiday movie Naughty & Nice, which will air this Sunday, November 9 at 7/6c, goes a little something like this:

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Los Angeles and commuters have Pepper Sterling (Tilky Jones from Nashville), a cynical and funny radio comic, to keep them entertained. When Pepper’s latest radio antics anger an important advertising executive, he gets shipped over to a sister station, KBRG in Idyllwild, Colorado, to serve out his suspension until the dust blows over.

Sandy Love (Haylie Duff from 7th Heaven), following in her father’s footsteps, loves radio and came home to Idyllwild to host her own talk show. She is unapologetically romantic and nostalgic, especially at Christmas. Thrown together as co-hosts on her show “Dr. Love in the Morning,” she is immediately at odds with Pepper, who never met a sentiment he couldn’t twist into a punchline and has no use for Christmas.

When Samantha and Pepper’s “war of words” catches the attention of the small town, their joint show becomes a hit and they start to see something in each other.

The made-for-TV holiday movie also stars Maureen McCormick of The Brady Bunch fame, Tyler Jacob Moore, who has been seen in episodes of the short-lived GCB and Shameless and Terrence “T.C.” Carson of Living Single fame.

In watching an advance screening of the movie, Naughty & Nice is the epitome of the typical bad-boy meets good-girl movie with shock jock Pepper getting relegated to the “middle of nowhere” after pissing off his bosses at the hottest morning radio show in Los Angeles.

There is the typical “meet cute” moment between Pepper and Samantha at the tiny airport where the former treats the latter as a flunky and attempts to use his radio “shtick” on Samantha’s advice show. Obviously, that doesn’t work for Samantha; but it seems to work with the listeners.

As the two start to spend more time together, of course, Samantha has a good influence on Pepper; but how long will that last? They are, obviously, falling for each other, but Pepper wants out of that small town and back on the radio in LA.

If your type of holiday TV movie is predictable but sweet, then Naughty & Nice is perfect for you. Check it out when it debuts on the UP Channel this Sunday at 7/6c.