After five years hosting the successful “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” television program, Jeff Foxworthy was a hot commodity in game show circles.
The comedian was pitched many, many ideas. Most, he says, were horrible or simply not up his alley.
“American Bible Challenge” (debuting tonight at 8 on GSN for a ten-episode run) didn’t entice him at first, either: “I didn’t want to do a game show about the Bible. I didn’t want to stand in line in Hell because of a game show!”
But when Foxworthy learned the show’s contestants would compete to win cash for selected charities, his stance softened.
The trick, he says, was to “make it fun and interesting, but not be disrespectful to the Bible.”
The pilot episode, which Foxworthy shot this spring in Los Angeles, failed to strike that balance. “It was flat and dry. We went back and retooled it.”
The show’s writers came up with fresher concepts. In one upcoming episode, contestants must decide if a quote came from “The Lord of the Rings” — or the Lord’s book. Playing off the popularity of Facebook, one question category was dubbed “Faithbook.”
Another episode includes a familiar-sounding topic: “Biblical rednecks.” The writers were inspired by Foxworthy, who became known in the 1980s for his “You might be a redneck” jokes.
“One day, I was going through the Bible, finding people with redneck traits. Samson got mad at his neighbor, tied fox tails together, set them on fire and burned the guy’s fields up.
“That’s a Biblical redneck!”
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