Green Pride staff reacts to religious game show

If you have not heard of The American Bible Challenge, then do yourself a favor and stop reading this, find the show on Netflix, and watch Season 2, Episode 1. If you have seen the American Bible Challenge, then welcome to the club.

I first heard of this show through a fellow Green Pride staff member, who told us all about how he spent too many hours watching the show in its entirety. Of course, being the savvy reporters we are, the rest of the staff quickly went to investigate this show.

Essentially, The American Bible Challenge is a game show like contest hosted by Jeff Foxworthy in which every question revolves around the Bible. Three teams of three compete against each other in an attempt to get the most points. The groups buzz in on a giant bible–picture a podium but the top of the podium is a giant bible–and also have to compete in games of skill such as “Stick a Fork in It,” in which the groups have to use a spoon to launch a fork into a cup. After every round, one player from each team is eliminated until only the top person from each group remains. Including segments such as “Faithbook,” a parody on the popular social networking site Facebook and “The Final Revelation,” which is the final round of the game. The overall winners of each season would receive a grand prize of $100,000 to go towards a charity of their choice.

The first season went on air in 2012, and the first premiere episode gained a total of 2.3 million views. The franchise also put out a study book, a mobile game and a board game to promote the series.

Running for a total of three seasons, the show was never actually officially canceled by its producers, GSN, but was considered to end based on the lack of production after 2014.

As mentioned earlier, this show has become somewhat of a running joke in the staff. My initial reaction to this show was really just one word: why? The show was more entertaining to poke fun at than to actually watch. The fact that it is about a religion aside, the whole show was a giant pun-fest filled with poor humor and awkward people. Frankly, I am surprised it lasted three whole seasons and ranked in as many viewers as it did. However, the ‘memer’ side of me is eternally thankful that this show was created, because it brought about many laughs and memes.

Overall, if you are looking for something to binge watch this winter break, definitely take a look at this show, or even invite your family or friends to watch with you or play along.