Jeff Foxworthy returns to game-show hosting with GSN’s ‘American Bible Challenge’ starting August 23
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 Alpharetta 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!”
Foxworthy figures he wouldn’t do badly as a “Bible Challenge” contestant himself. His bona fides? He’s been part of a weekly men’s Bible study group for 15 years. And, for the past few years, he leads homeless men in a regular Bible study at the Atlanta Mission’s downtown Shepherd’s Inn.
(There are 8 million reasons why Foxworthy is a class act. This is just one of them. He normally does not publicize his charity work with the Mission and only did so this time in context to the game show. George Wright, program director at the Shepherd’s Inn, says he rarely gets media calls about it because Foxworthy simply does not toot his own horn about it. Foxworthy visits the 60 men in the program every Tuesday morning. “They are awestruck,” Wright says. “Here’s a celebrity who is very real, very honest and very straightforward with them.”)
While “Bible Challenge” may not have the wide appeal of, say, “Family Feud,” hopes Foxworthy’s broad-based popularity will draw plenty of his fans.
Mae Lynn Biggs — a nanny from Marietta who competed on “American Bible Challenge” as part of a trio called the Georgia Grace Girls — says Foxworthy is a key to the show’s potential success. During last month’s taping, she says, Foxworthy’s congenial nature and sense of humor put the audience, as well as contestants, at ease.
“It’s as if we were standing in the back yard talking as neighbors,” Biggs says.
“I go to First Baptist Church of Woodstock. He knows the pastor. My daughter Samantha goes to a satellite of the North Point Community Church [in Alpharetta]. He knows Pastor Andy [Stanley].
“He felt like a brother in Christ.”
On TV
“American Bible Challenge”
8 p.m., Thursdays, GSN
Sample questions
1. What sign did God establish as a promise that he would never flood the earth again?
A. morning dew B. lunar eclipse C. rainbow D. pinkie swear
2. Was this line in the Bible or “Lord of the Rings”? “The journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.”
3. Before Jonah was hurled into the sea, what was he doing when the storm first hit? Preaching, eating or sleeping?
Answers: 1. C 2. Lord of the Rings 3. Sleeping
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58 comments Add your comment
lkjlkj
August 22nd, 2012
1:43 pm
Wow, this sounds like a real thriller.
Steve-o
August 22nd, 2012
2:57 pm
Rodney, it’s “toot” his own horn, not “too.” Other than that typo, good article–Foxworthy is a good guy!
Brock
August 22nd, 2012
3:03 pm
this show will get ratings of biblical proportions!
Donna Jordan
August 22nd, 2012
3:08 pm
Gee finally a show that isn’t hunting a husband, wife, or a bunch of idiots living together.
Joanne
August 22nd, 2012
3:14 pm
sounds good. just keep the Kardashians off
Christina
August 22nd, 2012
3:42 pm
Sounds refreshing after years of bad-to-worse programming. I am not even Christian but I love trivia so I would probably watch it, especially if my other choices were the Kardashians or Honey Boo Boo!
Tom
August 22nd, 2012
3:45 pm
If there is room in this world for Honey Boo Boo and the Real Housewives of Atlanta, surely there is room for this. It might be interesting and it might be ho-hum but as many are wont to say online, if it doesn’t appeal to you, don’t watch it.
Cindy
August 22nd, 2012
4:21 pm
Sounds great want to watch it!!! Gotta find GSN on my T.V.
bravesgrl4life
August 22nd, 2012
4:42 pm
Jeff isa class act. John Smoltz is in his weekly Bible Study too, but I won’t say how I know that or where I know they meet.
Both men are stand-up Christian men who do a lot for this community and for the Kingdom.
Linda Walker
August 22nd, 2012
4:55 pm
I’m looking forward to watching and learning but I just hope it doesn’t drift away and become to secular. Hopefully the choices/answer’s will be more biblical and less secular. This is the only way I will continue to watch. I wish you the best on this venture Jeff.
SomeGuy
August 22nd, 2012
5:13 pm
This sounds really terrible. A hack comedian asking trivia questions about a fictitious book. I wonder if he’ll tell some awful redneck jokes. How about we send the entire cast of Blue Collar Comedy to another planet?
david c
August 22nd, 2012
5:18 pm
Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grade Redneck Christian?
bill
August 22nd, 2012
5:26 pm
Maybe Jeff can bring on his buddies Larry the Cable Hack and Ron White to drop the f-bomb forty or fifty times like they do in his “Christian” Comedy Shows
Doug
August 22nd, 2012
6:24 pm
Hope he gets to all that good stuff like Adam and Eve only had two sons, so where did we come from? Or entering the holy place without wearing bells can result in death.
Tree
August 22nd, 2012
7:02 pm
Doug, Adam & Eve had three (3) sons mentioned by name in the Bible, but they had many other sons and daughters. See Genesis 5:4.
Ackshun
August 22nd, 2012
7:39 pm
Ok so in order that would be:
1. Rainbow
2. Lord of the rings (Bible doesn’t teach death as an inevitability)
3. Sleeping
Hope this show runs til Kingdom come!
Alan
August 22nd, 2012
7:53 pm
Maybe people should read more than one book in their life.
just a thought
August 22nd, 2012
8:30 pm
God may have created more than just Adam & Eve as well – they were just the first and only documented. So we could have come from any number of persons
CT
August 22nd, 2012
10:39 pm
If you host a bible trivia game show . . . . [wait for it] . . . you might be a redneck!
Gary Boteler
August 22nd, 2012
11:33 pm
I think it’s sounds like a great program to learn from & grow by the knowledge of the most read book of the univers
marie
August 22nd, 2012
11:53 pm
Wouldn’t you know just when we quit Direct TV and go back to Comcast (GSN not on our Comcast lineup) a program that sounds like so much fun ( Redneck traits in the Bible indeed) will not be available on my TV. Shoot! I said “Shoot”. I hope it’s somewhere in my future. Maybe syndicated?
marie
August 22nd, 2012
11:58 pm
PS: Who in the world are the Kardashians? Or do I even want to know. I never even watched an episode of Desparate Housewives. Thank goodness for Law and Order (all of them). But while I’m at it, why on earth did they think L&O SVU would be the same without Christopher Meloni?
Jj
August 23rd, 2012
12:29 am
Another whacko Christofacist who would force everyone to go to church.
Carol
August 23rd, 2012
1:25 am
Duz nebody spel kerekly nemor?
Tanya
August 23rd, 2012
2:02 am
Something Biblical? We’d watch it in a HEARTBEAT, except for the fact that we don’t get GSN (Guam). Just when I thought we had something WORTH watching… considering the alternatives!!! I’m definitely recommending it to friends in the US, tho’!!! May the GOD OF THE BIBLE bless you!!!
me
August 23rd, 2012
2:21 am
@Marie you don’t know who the Kardisans are so it is point less. Chris was on this season of True Blood. Most Christians wont watch that anyways. If they can have a show about just about any thing reality now, why not a show like this for charities. Back to Maria, if you like the Law and orders since SVU is his only one he has a new show called Chicago fire. I’ve been working it here in the city.
George
August 23rd, 2012
2:28 am
Hey Jj, no one is forcing anyone to go to church. What an asinine thing to say! There is a large pseudo-Christian group that did kill people for not agreeing with them but they lost their power a long time ago.
Chode McBlob
August 23rd, 2012
6:54 am
A game show about a book of fables and fantasy. I’m sure it will be popular in the bible belt.
pagan man
August 23rd, 2012
7:39 am
what could be more useless than bible trivia?
Pippy Short Stockings
August 23rd, 2012
8:51 am
Apparently Foxworthy is low on cash and will do anything for money.
Pippy Short Stockings
August 23rd, 2012
8:52 am
Sounds like Foxworthy is low on cash and will do anything for money at this stage in his career.
Yours
August 23rd, 2012
8:55 am
Once again, the anti-Christians come out in force to bash what they aren’t going to watch in the first place. What are you so insecure about that forces you to make a negative comment about what others believe? Just a hint-your high blood pressure probably hasn’t changed one mind.
BigChicken
August 23rd, 2012
9:00 am
I’d watch if I had GSN. Hopefully this goes to syndication and gets picked up. Foxworthy’s a good guy and has been said this CAN NOT possibly be worse than most of the other garbage that’s being produced these days.
dtanner
August 23rd, 2012
9:02 am
i agree pippy,must really need the cash to stoop to doing a show like this, i mean this kind of show is an obvious loser,
Chode McBlob
August 23rd, 2012
9:14 am
This should keep the ignorant bible thumpers happy.
PR
August 23rd, 2012
9:24 am
Boring….
TW
August 23rd, 2012
9:30 am
GSN is channel 128 on Comcast
ConfusedAsHell
August 23rd, 2012
9:37 am
Is this effing serious?!!!
ConfusedAsHell
August 23rd, 2012
9:40 am
I agree with ‘pagan man’…
“what could be more useless than bible trivia?”
narai
August 23rd, 2012
9:47 am
So glad finally a show we can actually learn things, and use them in our everyday lives! I will be praying this to be a big success, for Jeff and all the contestants, ~ read some of the sad comments left, so if this isn’t a show you care to learn and grow from, don’t watch ~ we will miss you though ~ I will be looking forward to being challenged and to learning!!! but if all your concerned with is money and garbage filled minds, then this probably isn’t your kind of show ~ blessings,
Gresham Brown
August 23rd, 2012
10:49 am
But what about the black people?
pagan man
August 23rd, 2012
10:52 am
to quote karl marx, “religeon is the opiate of the masses”,and for those of you who hav’nt seen bill maher’s religulous,watch it it is hilarious
Gwinnett Mom
August 23rd, 2012
11:19 am
Finaly a family freindly show! U no they wont be talking about the gays so I can let my children wacht. My only concern is Obama might try 2 take this off the air B cuz he is a muslim.
Gwinnett Mom
August 23rd, 2012
11:21 am
Wow just now reeding sum of these coments and sum of U are horible. God will strike U down 4 all UR sins.
Praise Jesus
Valerie
August 23rd, 2012
11:24 am
Glad to hear about this show. Should be a lot of fun and informative . Great choice Jeff!
Vashtai
August 23rd, 2012
11:27 am
What is going to be funny is when an atheist wins this. Most atheists know a whole lot more about the Bible than most Christians do.
Gotta love the man
August 23rd, 2012
11:28 am
Amazing how all the insecure religion-bashers can’t take it when somebody with talent is not afraid to talk about and live out his or her faith. I am a Christian, although not as committed as I would like to, or need to be. So frankly I stand in awe of those who not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Jeff….u da man !!!
Gotta love the man
August 23rd, 2012
11:30 am
@ Gwinnett Mom…..I know you meant well, but frankly, that comment was no better than those made by the religion-bashers. Christ is all about “love your neighbor” and “love your enemies.” Pray for them; don’t bash them.
chram
August 23rd, 2012
11:38 am
A new low for the idiot box.
MountainDawg
August 23rd, 2012
11:44 am
Sounds like a great, quality family show. We’d watch it…had we not gotten rid of the “h3llivision”. As for you naysaying heathen, stick to the Godless “reality” TV and other assorted filth that “Hollyweird” churns out.