US TV Gets Spiritual in Ratings Hunt

[Guest guest]

TV Networks Seek Ratings in Higher Power

http://story.news./news?

tmpl=story&cid=572&ncid=572&e=1&u=/nm/20040615/lf_nm/leisure_tvspirit

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"It proves that you can do things that don't have to do with (sex)

and people will still buy your product, even if you use the

word 'God,"

Tue Jun 15, 8:10 AM ET

 

By Steve Gorman

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sitcoms are running out of laughs, cop

dramas are a dime a dozen and reality shows are all starting to look

alike. Now U.S. television networks are turning to a higher power in

their quest for loftier ratings.

 

Inspired by the runaway success of religion-themed novels like

the "Left Behind" series and Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the

Christ," broadcasters are devoting more of their prime-time

schedules to shows dealing with God, faith and the afterlife.

 

 

Two such shows, "Joan of Arcadia," the story of a teen-age girl who

speaks to God, and "Tru Calling," about a clairvoyant young morgue

attendant with the power to "relive" the previous day and help

prevent deaths, are coming back for second seasons this fall on CBS

and Fox, respectively.

 

 

They will join the return of the WB network's veteran drama "7th

Heaven," centered on the family of a minister, and Showtime's darkly

comic afterlife series "Dead Like Me."

 

 

And NBC is launching two new spiritual dramas of its own --

"Medium," starring Patricia Arquette as a suburban housewife who

helps solve crimes by communicating with the dead,

and "Revelations," an apocalyptic thriller featuring Bill Pullman as

a scientist racing to thwart Armageddon.

 

 

It's not as big a trend as the TV westerns that galloped over the

small screen during the 1960s or the "reality" craze of recent

years, but the upcoming batch of faith-oriented series marks a new

high point in prime-time piety.

 

 

Della Reese, an ordained minister and former gospel singer who

starred in the CBS hit "Touched an Angel," sees it as a sign that

spirituality has finally become "fashionable."

 

 

NETWORKS GETTING RELIGION

 

 

"People have wanted spiritual entertainment for a long time, but the

powers that be said, 'No. Nobody will buy that,"' she told

Reuters. "Now it's come to the place where you know there's nothing

else going to save you but the grace of God."

 

 

Network executives, too, have become believers. In a media landscape

of increasingly fragmented viewership, they say the success of

religious fare elsewhere in U.S. pop culture is shaping their age-

old quest for the Holy Grail of commercial television -- a mass

audience.

 

 

"We think this is something that's been out there for years and has

actually been untapped," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly

said. "The world is in turmoil right now, and when it is, you tend

to see people going for conspiracy theories, going to apocalyptic

stories and spirituality."

 

 

He cited the growing popularity of books like the "Left Behind"

novels, a 12-part drama about the second coming drawn from the Book

of Revelation in the New Testament that has sold more than 60

million copies worldwide.

 

 

But religion also figures prominently in a host of bestsellers

ranging from Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," a modern thriller

steeped in purported secrets about the early Christian church, to

Bruce Wilkinson's "The Prayer of Jabez: How to Get God to Bless Your

Life."

 

 

At the same time, inspirational and religious-themed music has

become a growing pop genre in the recording industry.

 

 

Jana Riess, the religion book review editor for Publishers Weekly

and author of "What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual

Guide," said the notion of a divine approach to TV ratings growth

makes sense.

 

 

AN UNTAPPED MARKET

 

 

"If they're looking for an untapped market, this is it," she said,

noting polls that show most Americans profess a belief in God and

nearly half counting themselves as born-again or evangelical

Christians.

 

 

 

 

 

"Americans are a very religious people, but our popular culture

expressions have not always reflected that," she said. "Those same

people who read the 'Left Behind' books would also like to see films

and television shows that reflect their values and their spiritual

principals."

 

But a godly theme itself is no guarantee of heavenly ratings. NBC's

animated comedy "God, the Devil and Bob" angered many Christians and

quickly flopped four years ago.

 

Spirituality in series television also runs counter to decades of

prime-time orthodoxy, which has generally consigned overtly

religious themes to holiday specials.

 

Faith had a bigger place in the early days of TV.

 

The long-running soap opera "The Guiding Light" moved from radio to

television in 1952 as a serialized drama centered on a minister and

his family, though the show has evolved into one that generates far

more heat than light. And a real-life Catholic bishop, the Rev.

Fulton J. Sheen, hosted the popular 1950s prime-time show "Life is

Worth Living," offering weekly lessons in morality illustrated with

chalkboard scribblings.

 

Religious symbolism and spiritual overtones also abounded on more

recent shows as varied as "M*A*S*H,Picket Fences,NYPD Blue"

and "The Sopranos," said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse

University's Center for the Study of Popular Television. But series

TV as a whole has remained largely secular.

 

Notable exceptions of the 1980s and '90s include "Hell Town,"

starring Robert Blake as a two-fisted priest, and inspirational but

nondenominational dramas, "Touched by an Angel" and "Highway to

Heaven."

 

The latter two, both about angels helping troubled people on Earth,

were disparaged by some critics as cloying but were commercial

successes that lasted several seasons. "It proves that you can do

things that don't have to do with (sex) and people will still buy

your product, even if you use the word 'God,"' Reese said.

 

CBS and Showtime are units of Viacom Inc . Fox is part of the Fox

Entertainment Group, owned by News Corp. Ltd. . NBC is a unit of

General Electric Corp. . The WB network is a joint venture of Time

Warner Inc. and the Tribune Co.