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Airdate: The Bible

Nine is set to screen hit US miniseries The Bible, a dramatisation produced by Mark Burnett.

Nine is set to screen hit US miniseries The Bible, a dramatisation produced by Mark Burnett, starting next week.

This has been a big hit in the US, where the the first episode was seen by 13.1 million viewers on the History channel, the largest cable television audience of 2013 so far. Another 10.8m and 10.9m tuned in for its second and third eps respectively.

The 10 episode series is based on five hours from the Old Testament and five from the New Testament.

Each episode opens with the title card: “This program is an adaptation of Bible stories that changed our world. It endeavors to stay true to the spirit of the book.”

The $22m series was filmed mostly in Morocco. There was some controversy when a Morrocan actor portraying Satan was said to resemble Barack Obama, but conspiracy theories have been denied by Burnett.

A sequel A.D.: Beyond the Bible is due to air on NBC.

Tuesday July 16 at 9.00pm on Nine.

18 Responses

  1. Awesome! We have seen this, and they’ve done a good job with the amount of time that they have to try and cover the entire Bible in 10 episodes. The guy who plays Jesus does a really good job too! It’s got a slightly different feel to a lot of other Bible epics.

  2. @David Knox, I rumours Judas was up for elimination but there was an immunity deal with Pontius and also Pontius is bringing out an exercise programme “Pontius Pilate Pilates”

  3. Surely there must be a reality show on instead. Cooking, home renovation, models catfighting, celebs looking for their long lost relatives. Anything…

  4. @Jason,

    Actually, in 2012 the Christians are still at 77%, which is much closer to 80, than 70.

    gallup.com/poll/159548/identify-christian.aspx

    The 90% figure comes from 2007 , a study conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation.

  5. I wouldn’t get too attach to Lot’s Wife, she’s gets a bit salty, oh and The Devil did it. I do like the title of the sequel, AD: Beyond the Bible, I can hear the voice over now, “At Easter he’s back, he’s angry and it’s going to be biblical”

  6. The 90% figure is from a 1963 survey. In 2012, the percentage of Christians was closer to 70%; 13% claimed no religious identity. You don’t have to be a “Christian” or a “believer” to be likely to watch a very well made program. As for “the ending”, anyone who has read the book will know “the ending”. The book’s been out for quite some time and is available everywhere, even in hotel rooms. But, sorry Nine, got the DVD set from the local library when released in April.

  7. “This has been a big hit in the US, where …”

    80% of the population describe themselves as Christians

    90% of the population describe themselves as religious.

    Context, always context.

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