Television is largely a godless place, some would say, but not this month. Programs with biblical or other religious themes are sprouting up, some in places where you might not expect them. If nothing else, costumers who traffic in robes and sandals are doing a booming business.
The reason for the fervor isn’t hard to fathom: Not only is Easter coming, but so also is “A.D.: The Bible Continues,” the latest offering from Roma Downey and Mark Burnett. They’re the couple behind the History channel mini-series “The Bible,” whose immense popularity caught the television world by surprise in 2013.
“A.D.,” which is scheduled to begin on April 5 on NBC and concerns the time after the Crucifixion, will no doubt make a ratings splash, too, especially with believers who like their Christianity loud and full of suffering. “This is ‘Game of Thrones’ meets the Bible,” Mr. Burnett says in a trailer.
The same audience-grabbing calculation behind that statement is why you can find religion-themed fare in the next few weeks on CNN, PBS, the Smithsonian Channel, even the Weather Channel. If “A.D.” is going to be another “Bible”-size hit, lots of TV executives want a seat on the bandwagon.
CNN is in the midst of a six-part series called “Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery.” Earnest scholars describe biblical stories and related matters much as they would narrate a history of the civil rights movement or a world war, with a studied urgency meant to convey credibility and importance. The scenes are re-enacted by sweaty actors using their best facial expressions, often those signifying pain.
“They press it into his head so that you see blood trickling down his face,” someone said in the first installment, talking about the crown of thorns Jesus was made to wear while being crucified. The episode was about the Shroud of Turin and featured speculation on how it might have become stained. Lest we miss the point, a re-enactment showed the crown and the blood.
The same tone prevails in “Top 10: Bible Weather,” an awkward mix of biblical natural disasters and recent meteorological calamity on Saturday on the Weather Channel, served in “listicle” form. Ten calamities from the Bible are paired with equivalent phenomena from our time, with re-enactments standing alongside news footage and such. Dust storms, darkness, lightning, floods — God used them back then, and they’re still around today.
Speaking of floods, on March 22 the UP network tries its hand at adapting the tale from Genesis when it broadcasts “Noah’s Ark,” a film version of the story that has already been the subject of several film versions, one of them just last year.
“Nova,” on PBS, gets into the act on March 25 with a rebroadcast of the 2008 documentary “The Bible’s Buried Secrets,” the smartest of the programs summarized here. It’s still full of somewhat cheesy re-enactments, but it has a scholarly heart, exploring the origins of the Bible itself and of the concept of a single God. It struck a chord the first time around, apparently; a YouTube version has more than two million views.
On March 27 the Smithsonian Channel delves into somewhat related territory with “Siege of Masada,” a one-hour special about the Masada legend that is looking ahead to another Downey-Burnett project, “The Dovekeepers,” on CBS on March 31 and April 1. Then come the other big-ticket programs: “Killing Jesus, ” on the National Geographic Channel on March 29, based on the 2013 best seller written by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, and “A.D.,” several days later on Easter Sunday. We already know how broad the market is for “Bible”-like shows; in the next few weeks, we’ll learn how deep it is as well.