A new TV miniseries based on the Bible is drawing huge ratings for The History Channel.
Anyone wondering if the faith is dead in America need only look at the ratings for the first installment of The Bible, a 10-hour series of shows that will chronicle stories from Genesis to Revelation for two hours each Sunday night. The first show, which aired on Sunday night, drew 14.8 million viewers.
Four more episodes will be broadcast on Sunday evenings this month, with the final show airing on Easter Sunday and featuring the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The series was produced by Mike Burnett, the so-called “King of reality TV” and producer of shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race, along with his wife actress Roma Downey, of “Touched by an Angel” fame.
“We’ve been working on this project for the past four years now, and are deeply honored to be given this once in a generation opportunity to breathe new visual life into the Bible’s profound stories,” the couple says in a statement
Burnett calls the 10-hour series the “most important” project he has undertaken.
James Poniewozik of Time is predicting that the hit series will spark imitators and could mean that television may finally “get religion.”
“Those are the kinds of numbers that get TV executives’ attention, and ‘attention’ in the TV business means copying,” he writes. “Last year, History pulled meganumbers with Hatfields and McCoys; now NBC (CMCSA) is developing a Hatfields and McCoys series. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see more religious epics coming to TV—stories aimed, like the Bible miniseries, at the comfort zone of believers.”
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