Dean Cain counts down 'Top 12 Greatest Christmas Movies' for The CW

Dean Cain may be the superman of Christmas movies.

The actor has made more than a dozen of them for various networks — including this season's “Broadcasting Christmas” for Hallmark Channel — so he's an appropriate person to serve as host of “The Top 12 Greatest Christmas Movies of All Time,” a CW special debuting Wednesday, Dec. 14. Clips from each included film illustrate the countdown to the No. 1 pick. While Cain won't state outright what that choice is, he leaves no doubt which one he favors.

“One of my favorite movies of all time, bar none, is ‘It's a Wonderful Life,'” he says. “It just gets me. It may be the greatest Christmastime film I've ever seen ... and it has nothing to do with Christmas, but everything to do with that time of the year. It's not a Christmas story, but it is, and I just adore it.”

With such other likely candidates as “White Christmas,” “Miracle on 34th Street” and “A Christmas Story,” the amiable Cain was “surprised at how easy it was” to make the special's selection of a dozen yuletide favorites. “I didn't know the order, but I was just hoping ... and for a countdown type of special, I thought this one was dead-on. I was really happy with the way it went.

“And I had so much fun shooting it,” adds Cain.

That's partially because the show hits Cain where he lives, being the ardent movie-lover he is. “My brother and I don't actually speak to each other in real terms, we just quote movies,” he muses. “We'll do that, then we hang up on each other, and that says all we have to say.” Absent from those chats is their father, film director Christopher Cain (“Young Guns”). “He thinks we're idiots,” Dean notes. “And my mom's like, ‘Don't you speak to each other like regular people?' And we say, ‘No, Mom. We don't do that.'”

Dean Cain's presence is being felt strongly on The CW this holiday season. He was featured in the recent Hollywood Walk of Fame Honors special, and he's a host — along with Erik Estrada, Montel Williams and travel guru Laura McKenzie — of the network's telecast of the 85th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade on Friday, Dec. 16.

Even beyond the holidays, Cain and The CW have a strong relationship. He'll be back for his sixth season of hosting the series “Masters of Illusion” next year, and due to “Supergirl's” Year 2 move from CBS, he also has CW ties via that show now ... though it's a question mark when and how his character, heroine Kara's (Melissa Benoist) Earth father Jeremiah Danvers, may resurface again.

“I love the show,” said Cain, who starred as the man of steel in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” “and Melissa literally is the perfect casting. She's done so well with the role.”