Yes, Mario Lopez Is Really Starring as Sexy Colonel Sanders in a Lifetime Movie for KFC

I don’t know how to tell you this, but Lifetime is about to release a “mini movie” sponsored by KFC starring Mario Lopez as a sexy Colonel Sanders. If your brain was somehow able to process that sentence, get ready for this: It’s called A Recipe for Seduction.

You seriously can’t make this stuff up. A Recipe for Seduction is a 15-minute-long short that will hit Lifetime on December 13 at noon and will also be available on the network’s streaming platforms. 

“As the holidays draw near, a young heiress contends with the affections of a suitor handpicked by her mother,” reads the official description, per Entertainment Weekly. “When the handsome chef, Harland Sanders, arrives with his secret fried chicken recipe and a dream, he sets in motion a series of events that unravels the mother’s devious plans. Will our plucky heiress escape to her wintry happily ever after with Harland at her side, or will she cave to the demands of family and duty?”

Watch the trailer, below, if you feel 2020 should be a bit more deranged. Actual lines in this actual mini movie include: “He has a secret recipe that will change the world” and “Secret’s out, chicken man.”

Obviously, the internet has thoughts, and “Mario Lopez” is currently trending on Twitter. Mostly, people simply have no idea what is going on. “Who had ‘KFC-themed rom-com starring Mario Lopez as sexy Colonel Sanders’ on their 2020 bingo card?” One Twitter user asked. It wasn’t me.

“Between Quibi, Peacock, and Lifetime Original Sexy KFC Movie starring Mario Lopez, the spirit of 30 Rock has had one hell of a year,” another added. 

Many people’s first instinct—including my own—was “Is this real?” Exhibit A:

Of course, some reactions were just funny…

So yeah, this is happening, and I’m suddenly craving a bucket of extra crispies, so I guess all the money KFC shelled out for this worked?