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‘Bible’ Miniseries Beats Zombies as Year’s Most-Watched Cable TV Show
EXCERPT:
The History Channel’s latest hit drew crowds of biblical proportions, with 13.1 million viewers tuning in Sunday for the premiere of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s miniseries on the Bible.
The two-hour episode, portraying Genesis and Exodus, was the most-watched and highest-rated show on TV that night and the most popular cable telecast of the year, beating out The Walking Dead on AMC, according to Nielsen.
“God Beats Zombies! Guess it pays to be eternal vs immortal! #TheBible,” Burnett tweeted following the news.
Last year’s premiere of Hatfields & McCoys on the History Channel scored an audience of 13.9 million, the network’s most-watched program ever and the only one more popular than The Bible, Bloomberg News reported.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. The Gospel Coalition points out the Bible’s been an entertainment hit for decades, with The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, and The Passion of the Christ ranked among the top-grossing films of all time.
But to your point about TV, my wife remarked while watching "don't these people realize they'll never work in film again?" I think The Bible is a rare anomaly in an increasingly hostile entertainment world.