Amber Marshall Reveals the Secret to Heartland's Success

Before Heartland, before the ranch outside Calgary, before 18 seasons of playing Amy Fleming on Canada's longest-running one-hour drama, Marshall had a different future mapped out. She was going to be a veterinarian. Acting was not a career — it was just something she did. Then the show came along, and by Season 2 she had relocated full-time to Alberta, rented a farm, got some animals, and realized she was not going back.

"It just felt like home right away," she told TV Insider.

In 2009, she bought a small farm outside Calgary. A year later, she met her husband, Shawn. They married at the property in 2013, surrounded by friends, family, and the animals they had taken in. Marshall does not present ranch life as a branding choice. It is simply how she lives.

That rootedness may explain something about why Heartland has lasted where so many other family dramas have not. The show — filmed on location in the Alberta foothills, which supply a visual warmth that production design alone cannot manufacture — is now heading into its 20 season, renewed in May 2026. For context, most American network dramas consider a seventh season a triumph.

Marshall has a clear theory about the show's durability, and she has articulated it in nearly the same terms across multiple interviews. "Fans are really looking for a nice, wholesome, family show that they can sit down together and watch and not be worried about the content," she told TV Insider. "Not have to explain things to their kids. In such a fast-paced world, where so many people are separated by devices and technology, everybody is very disconnected — but they can still get together to sit and watch our show together."

She expanded on that in a conversation with Trailblazher Co., describing what viewers tell her they feel when they watch. "'It makes me feel good, and it makes me feel inspired and positive and that I can really get through anything,'" she said, echoing the feedback she hears most often. "I think that's really what the show is about."

The distinction she draws is not just between wholesome and not wholesome — it is about a specific physiological effect. "There's a lot of scripted television shows out there that keep you on the edge of your seat, but sometimes in a way that gives you anxiety," she said. "The thing I love about Heartland is that it's just comfortable. You don't feel that anxiety."

Season 20 is currently in production. Canadian audiences are expected to see it in fall 2026, with a US debut on Up Faith & Family likely to follow in early 2027. Marshall, for her part, already knows she will be there for it — on screen and, when the cameras stop rolling, on the farm just outside Calgary that she could not imagine leaving.

"I love where I'm living," she said. "I love the people that I work with. After being here, I'm like, I can't imagine living anywhere else."

READ MORE: HEARTLAND’s Amber Marshall Praises Show’s ‘Wholesome, Family’ Themes