Will NBC’s ‘A.D.’ replicate ratings success of ‘The Bible’ on Easter Sunday?

Easter Sunday is not always known as the biggest ratings night of the season. Christian families are tired after long days of church, Jewish families (at least this year) are in the middle of Passover, and these two faiths make up a big percentage of the popular. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of events happening that make television less of a priority.

Granted, we imagine that NBC’s “A.D.” on Sunday night will appeal mostly to Christian audiences, and will hope to be as immensely popular as “The Bible” was when it aired on History two years ago. The key differences here begin with the fact that “The Bible” did not premiere on Easter Sunday; it actually ended on the day, but it still drew huge ratings then.

Given that this miniseries is airing without a whole lot of substantial competition on the night, we expect it to do very well despite many Christian audiences being exhausted from a long day of church and Easter egg hunting. We still don’t expect it to be “The Bible,” mostly because the landscape has changed, and this is a story that will focus mostly on life after Jesus, as opposed to many of the events leading up to his death.

With the high-profile nature of the miniseries in mind, you still better believe that we are going to be keeping watch on everything that takes place with this program from start to finish. Both executive producer Mark Burnett and NBC have high hopes that this continues a trend of successful faith-based programmed in movies and TV.

What do you think is going to happen when “A.D.” premieres on Easter Sunday? Let us know with a comment, and head over here if you want to get some other TV news on everything we cover sent over to you, and courtesy of our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)