A TV Parable on Spirituality and Success

It’s in vogue to rail against media conglomerates that serve up violent and sexual content to lure an audience. But Hollywood insiders all know that high-minded spiritual programming is the hot ticket these days.

NBC is telecasting “In the Beginning,” advertised as “From Creation to the Commandments,” during the November sweeps, airing Nov. 12 and 13.

The other major networks, and many of the cable channels, are playing the same card. CBS has its own version of the origin of the species special, “Adam & Eve,” in preparation for next year. NBC is developing a miniseries based on the story of Mary Magdalene. In December, A&E; will air a four-hour documentary, “Christianity: The Second Millennium,” a follow-up to its exploration of the first thousand years of Christianity, which drew more than 10 million viewers.

“Everyone watches these stories,” says Steve White, executive vice president of movies and miniseries at NBC. “Maybe not all the people in every demographic but definitely some in each. That’s the definition of broad appeal or broadcasting.”

This is not a knee-jerk response to criticism but pure dollars and cents. “They’re very advertiser friendly because they draw a family audience,” says Allen Sabinson, senior vice president of programming at A&E; Networks. “And they’re very easy to co-finance with overseas entities because the appeal is worldwide.”

Recent religious-themed television miniseries have drawn huge audiences. “The Life of Jesus Christ” on CBS (21.6 million viewers) and “Noah’s Ark” (30.9 million viewers on average) on NBC were the highest-rated TV movies of the last two years.

On its first night earlier this year “Jesus” easily trounced “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “X-Files,” its main competitors. “Noah” was the week’s most watched program when it was aired in May 1999, besting such popular TV staples as “ER,” “Frasier” and “Friends.”

In addition, last November, NBC presented the miniseries “Mary, Mother of Jesus,” another ratings winner garnering 16.7 million viewers. In May, an ABC two-hour news special, “The Search for Jesus,” pulled comparable ratings to the network’s popular “20/20” newsmagazine show (about 16.6 million viewers).

Garth Ancier, NBC’s president of entertainment, believes the ratings reflect a need for continuing validation of Judeo-Christian beliefs. “ ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus’ was a truly heroic story, told in a contemporary way,” says Ancier. Like medical or legal dramas, he says, they are wish-fulfillment fantasies, presenting heroes with a strong moral center.

Over the last few years, Turner Network Television has produced several highly successful religious-themed films, the most popular of which were miniseries on Old Testament figures Joseph, Abraham, Moses and David. Other TNT movies dealt with the lives of Jacob and Samson and Delilah.

The attraction extends to the newsstand. Newsweek and Time average one to two religious covers a year, usually timed to the Easter and Christmas observances, and they rank about the top two or three best-selling newsstand performers every year, according to Newsweek spokesman Tom Smith.

The apocalyptic Christian fundamentalist thriller “The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession” by Tim F. LeHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins entered the New York Times Bestseller list at No. 1. It is the seventh in the authors’ “Left Behind” series of religious thrillers, which over the last five years have sold 17 million copies. Two of the titles are being turned into feature films.

“In the eight years I’ve been working here, Jesus covers have always been newsstand bestsellers, beat only by major news and tragedies,” says Newsweek’s Smith. This year’s “Visions of Jesus” cover (208,000 copies sold) was the magazine’s highest-volume newsstand mover until a recent cover story on autism. Last year’s “Two Thousand Years of Jesus” (238,000 copies) was the third best-selling cover of 1999.

Despite initial skepticism about its viability from ABC, Tom Yellin, executive producer of the Peter Jennings special “The Search for Jesus,” says the high ratings for the documentary effectively demonstrated “that people are interested in religion because it’s something at the center of their lives, and we in the news business are sometimes out of touch with that.

“ ‘The Search for Jesus’ presented a great deal of new information that people didn’t know, even Christians, about the life Jesus led as a human being. It’s incredibly important for people to have that knowledge.”

Similarly, the “Jesus” miniseries on CBS emphasized his humanity, says Judd Parkin, the film’s producer. The casting of a young, accessible actor like Jeremy Sisto was deliberate, as was the less stilted dialogue.

“Jeremy had an ability to take Jesus off the pedestal and make him very human,” Parkin says. “He found a way to make parables sound conversational and not like he was spouting platitudes.”

That, in part, says Sunta Izzicupo, CBS’ senior vice president of movies and miniseries, is why the Jesus miniseries attracted a far more diverse demographic than the networks’ traditionally older audience.

“The Jesus story is part of our collective consciousness,” Izzicupo says. “Even if you’re Jewish you know the story. In fact, Jesus is the most famous Jew in human history. He lived in Jerusalem, he knew his Torah, he was bar mitzvahed, he even said his morning prayers in Hebrew. In our version it was the first time that had ever been shown and though no one mentioned it, we’re very proud of that.”

Unlike religious-themed movies such as “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Jesus of Montreal” or “Stigmata,” the television projects avoid controversy even if there are different opinions about the validity of their approach. “In the context of religious scholarship,” says ABC News’ Yellin, “The Search for Jesus” was about as mainstream and down the middle as a football game in Ohio.”

In the network’s upcoming miniseries “In the Beginning,” based on the book of Genesis, “the trick was not to tell the stories as they would have been told 50 years ago,” says NBC’s White.

For instance, as with the recent Jesus miniseries, the character of Moses will be played by a more accessible personality, actor Bill Campbell (ABC’s “Once and Again”), whom White says “is freed of the classical theater approach of Charlton Heston and will connect more directly with the audience.” Like most biblically themed tales, “In the Beginning” will be given a slot during a sweeps period, either in November or February, when the networks heavily promote programming to sweeten viewership and justify advertising rates.

Further down the road for NBC is another New Testament tale, “Mary Magdalene,” based on the upcoming biography by historian Margaret George.

Yellin is exploring several other possible news specials for ABC dealing with faith and religion, both on the historical level and the contemporary. “It’s important for us in the popular press to pay attention to religious faith because it’s an important factor in people’s lives.” And it sells.

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Religion and Ratings

Better than sex and violence for drawing a mass television audience, religious-themed programs are perennial ratings winners.

Source: Times research

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