Last week, a new game show premiered on the Game Show Network. Perhaps you’ve heard of it: The American Bible Challenge!

I’m not much of a game show fan, but I do enjoy Bible trivia, so I was looking forward to this one!

About the Game

The show, hosted by Jeff Foxworthy, consists of three teams of three. Each team is playing to win money for their favorite charity/non-profit. The show begins with an introduction of each team and a little history about the charity they are playing for. Then, the trivia begins.

Over several rounds, players are asked multiple choice questions about Bible facts. Each round is a little different than the last, but the questions get progressively more difficult.

The team with the lowest score at the end of the first part is eliminated, leaving only two teams to go to the final round. They are given the topic of the final round and ten minutes alone with their Bibles in order to “cram.” Then, each team must answer as many questions as possible in one minute, and the team who answers the most wins the money!

Review

There were several things about the show that I liked, and several things that I didn’t like. For starters, I thought the show moved much too slowly. If the whole show was played more like the last round – quickly and to-the-point, I think I would have enjoyed it more. As it is though, it seemed to drag on and on, mostly at the beginning.

I enjoyed hearing about each of their teams and their charities, but again, I thought it could have been done a little more quickly. I just wanted an overall two-or-three-sentence summary. I didn’t necessarily need a whole long explanation of each one.

The questions were probably my favorite part, which is why I wanted everything else to go quickly. There was a wide variety of topics and difficulty levels, and I like that I didn’t know all the answers! (That being said, I caught a mistake on the very first episode!! One question in the last round asked which Queen traveled a long way to ask Solomon hard questions. The team answered “Bathsheba” and it was counted as correct. However, the actual answer is “The Queen of Sheba.” I’m letting it slide because I figured maybe they misunderstood what she said. But, I’m definitely paying closer attention to future answers!) 🙂

As a host, Jeff Foxworthy was enjoyable, so I don’t have any drawbacks about him. However, they had a random Gospel-type choir that sang their way into every commercial break, and it seemed a little weird to me. (Again, let’s move it along a little quicker!)

Conclusion

So, while there were several aspects of the show that I think could have been better, the bottom line is that I did enjoy it. I will watch it again, and I will encourage anyone else to watch it too. Over 2.3 million people tuned in for the premiere – which was the largest audience that the GSN has ever had for a premiere! That alone is so exciting, and reason to praise God! Any time the media sees significant positive response to wholesome entertainment, they take notice.

So if you missed the premiere last week, you have another chance to watch the show tonight! It airs on the GSN on Thursdays at 8/7c, and you can find out all about it here!

Q: What did you think of the premiere of The American Bible Challenge?