From 'The Bible' to the Amish, Why Religion Is Hot on Cable

[cbayer]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/bible-amish-why-religion-is-430350

8:00 AM PDT 3/22/2013 by Kimberly Nordyke

"Clearly a lot of people are talking about it, which is great," "Bible" EP Mark Burnett tells THR of the hit miniseries' impact.


"The Bible"

The cable networks have found religion.

History has a hit with The Bible, Showtime is visiting The Vatican, Lifetime is keeping tabs on Preachers' Daughters, GSN has a Bible-themed game show, and several channels (TLC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic) have sparked to the Amish. And that's just for starters.

"Faith has always been a big part of American culture, and I think the majority of Americans are believers and attend church, so it's not like that is a new trend," says Rob Sharenow, executive vp programming at Lifetime Networks. "But in terms of programming, there have been several things that just seem to be popping right now. It feels kind of natural to me. This is a something that a lot of people understand and believe, and they like to see that reflected in the context of movies and TV shows."

Lifetime recently debuted the reality show Preachers' Daughters -- whose second episode saw a 13 percent increase in viewers (1.7 million) and a 39 percent increase among adults 18-49 (936,000 viewers) from last week's premiere -- on the heels of two movies timed to coincide with Black History Month: the original movie Twist of Faith, an interfaith love story starring Toni Braxton, and Pastor Brown, starring Salli Richardson-Whitfield (Eureka) as a young woman who takes over the family church.

more at link

[okasha]

1. The quick, cheapie answer is that sex and violence sells.

A slightly more considered answer is that the Bible stories are in themselves such wonderful, archetypal narratives:

Sneaky younger brother cheats older brother out of his inheritance and runs off to mother's family. Later returns and approaches older brother with extreme caution. Older brother has somehow lost urge to strangle him and they settle down peacefully because they're family, after all.

Older brothers get fed up with favored younger brother who's an unbearable little brat. Brat learns through adversity, prospers and is later reconciled to brothers and reunited with doting father.

Young man in polygamous culture marries two sisters. Women seem to lack family feeling of above brothers and engage in hair-pulling rivalry. Younger wife rails at husband because she hasn't succeeded in getting pregnant. Husband somewhat heatedly responds that he's been doing everything he possibly can to help her out.

(Wicked) Stepmother induces husband to repudiate older child by another woman so that her son can inherit. Older child's mother perseveres through trials that would kill a lesser woman and goes on to found, with her son, a new dynasty and people.

As my students used to exclaim when I did the background lectures on Shakespeare's plays, "Ma'am, it's just like a novela! (soap opera).

[cbayer]

2. Lol, great answer.

Stories for the ages that still apply.

[MADem]

3. Has anyone been watching this Bible Show? Letterman said that Satan looked like Obama...

I was curious if that were true, but not interested enough to tune in, to be honest!

[cbayer]

4. Don't get the channel, but the reviews have been pretty bad.

I also heard the rumor about the Obama resemblance.

[MADem]

5. Letterman made a joke about it...

Not sure what he said (don't remember) but it was funny at the time!

Maybe that he should have looked like Dumbya or Cheney...?

[TreasonousBastard]

6. There have been several threads about this...

with the expected amounts of outrage and tinfoil.

[MADem]

7. Looks like a relation, certainly...!

Much older, for sure.

What's with the damn hoodie, I wonder?

I gotta say, I am not smelling sulphur, but I do detect a whiff of racism in that casting and costuming choice...and maybe just a little bit of GOP bias, too!

Well, a segment of the world likes to call USA the Great Shatan, so what the hell, (pun intended) I guess! I still won't be finding time to tune in, I don't think.

Thanks for taking the time to provide me with the visual--it's certainly helpful to know what people are talking about~!