'A.D. The Bible Continues' Suffers Ratings Low for Finale, Revealing Gradual Decline in Viewers
A primetime television series based on events recorded in the book of Acts experienced a major ratings low for its finale episode Sunday, continuing a series-long downward trend since April.
"A.D. The Bible Continues," a follow-up series to the hit program "The Bible," scored a 0.7 rating among the 18-49 demographic, which translates to approximately 3.56 million viewers.
This rating was well below the series premiere of ABC's "Battlebots," which ran in the same hour as "A.D." and scored a 1.9 rating with approximately 5.44 million viewers.
Also competing with "A.D." was Fox's live coverage of the U.S. Open. The professional golf event, which aired from 7 – 10:46 p.m., garnered a 1.3 rating with nearly 6.7 million viewers.
Produced by husband and wife team Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, "A.D. The Bible Continues" premiered on Easter Sunday.
The 12 episodes comprising the first season begin with the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus and then culminated with the disciples getting their first Roman convert.
"Emperor Caligula's statue arrives and draws everyone to the battleground of the Temple. The disciples stand firm on Jesus' message and Cornelius becomes the first Roman convert," reads the finale's episode description on IMDB.
Sunday's 0.7 rating was a severe decline from the debut Easter Sunday episode of "A.D.", which gave NBC approximately 9.5 million viewers.
"NBC scored on Easter Sunday with the premiere of 'A.D. The Bible Continues,' which was the night's top-rated program even if it wasn't as strong as the 2013 version of 'The Bible,'" reported Rick Kissell of Variety in April.
"The 12-episode 'A.D.' series is a followup to the 2013 miniseries 'The Bible,' which averaged a 3.3 rating in adults 18-49 and drew a whopping 13.1 million viewers — one of the largest audiences ever for a cable program."
According to the site tvseriesfinale.com, the overall trend of the 12 episodes shows a gradual decline in viewership over the past couple months.
The site noted that the April episodes garnered ratings well above the 5.0 mark, while episodes in May sunk into the 4.0 range, and the June episodes were in the 3.0 range.
Speculation remains as to whether or not NBC will renew the program or decide to cancel it over the downward trend in ratings.
