What it was, was a decent quizzer that played every kind of question and answer game imaginable. Starting with three teams of three contestants apiece, the show winnowed the teams down to two for a final face-off that posed the toughest questions of the night.
Along the way we got some entertaining moments. The early questions were pretty easy, to lure in the not-so-clueful about the Bible. I even got a lot of them right, and I'm no scriptural genius. The difficulty level gradually rose as the show went through round after round of varied games. The final winners unfortunately had the most irritating contestant of the night on their team. But that wasn't enough to spoil the whole show.
Jeff Foxworthy did a pleasant and competent job as the host, and the show's gospel choir produced better music than the bands on Oh Sit. (Faint praise, I know. The choir really did sing well.) Sometimes the humor got cringe-worthy - "word of the Lord or Lord of the Rings?" - but it was no worse than some of Jeopardy's aching puns. I'll probably stick around for the rest of the nine-episode tournament.
One of these days I'll take in GSN's Beat the Chefs and post a review. I'm no cooking fan, but I'll try to be as evenhanded as possible.
UPDATE: TV by the Numbers says that American Bible Challenge got ratings of biblical proportions by GSN standards: 1.73 million viewers and a 0.4 18-49 rating. This was the most watched show in the network's history.
This just staggers me. I thought the Bible quizzer might break the 800K mark. But the 1.7 million mark? You gotta be kidding. Of course, all the repeats won't maintain anything like this number, and we'll have to wait and see how the subsequent first-runs do. But give GSN credit for their most watched show ever. Let's face it, they have very little competition in the Bible quizzer market, unlike the cooking competition market. That's called smart business...finding a new niche and filling it.
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