‘The Bible” is a phenomenon all over again.
The miniseries — which has been airing over five Sunday nights with its finale neatly planned for Easter night — has shaken up the TV world.
It’s drawing more than 12 million viewers — unheard of for cable TV where 6 million viewers count as a blockbuster — in its first showings.
“Hollywood,” says one veteran TV producer,” will never be the same after this.”
Here are five reasons it is not like other TV shows:
1. ‘The Bible” was made by a ragtag collection of reality TV directors and writers who had never worked on a scripted TV show before.
Much has been made of the no-name actors — a deliberate decision by producer Mark Burnett, creator of “Survivor,” so that viewers would not have some type of recognition that would take away from the story.
Not noted was the fact the writers and directors of the 10-hour series had almost no background in scripted TV.
Crispin Reece, who directed most of the first four episodes of “The Bible,” including “In the Beginning” and “Exodus,” was last employed directing episodes of “I Shouldn’t Be Alive,” an Animal Planet show about close brushes with death.
Canadian Tony Mitchell, who also directed parts of the Old Testament episodes, directed a Roy Orbison tribute and a TLC miniseries called “When Dinosaurs Ruled” before this.
Chief writer Richard Bedser has not a single drama to his credit. His last two jobs were writing TV documentaries “Gettysburg” and “ 9/11 State of Emergency.”
“There’s no reason to hire those guys other than the fact the Burnett felt more comfortable with them,” said a Hollywood studio exec.
“He could have gotten people with experience doing scripted shows for the same money.”
2. The series was cheap to make — scary cheap.
The reported budget for the 10-hour series was $22 million — $2.2 million per hour.
“Hell,” said one veteran TV producer, “HBO spends that for two episodes. Twenty-two million for a miniseries like that is unheard of.”
3. Roma Downey didn’t want to play Mary.
Because she was an executive producer on the project, Downey — who is married to Burnett — did not think it wise to act in the series also.
“It’s not the kind of thing an executive producer does,” says someone who knows her but asked to remain unnamed.
The “Touched by an Angel” star agreed to take the part because filming was scheduled to begin and no one had been cast in the part yet.
4. There is no rush by other networks to make more Bible shows.
“That ship has sailed,” says a veteran producer. “There’s only one Bible.”
This is the time of year when networks are looking for new shows for next year and — several veteran producers said this week — none seem to be looking for Bible shows.
However, several Bible movies — for theaters — that have been floating around Hollywood for years suddenly are now getting made, including films on Noah and Moses.
5. “The Bible” was hand sold.
For months before the series was completed, Downey and Burnett would show up a prayer meetings and Bible classes at churches all over the country and tell them the series was coming.
“They spread the word,” said an insider, pun intended.
“It’s maybe the first time people in the Midwest knew about a TV show before the people in New York did ,” he said.