TV Talk: Biblical epic ‘The Chosen’ airs on The CW

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

When The CW announced in recent months that it will give life-of-Jesus biblical series “The Chosen” a linear platform, some looked askance at the idea of the show airing on the home of “The Flash,” “Gotham Knights” and “Riverdale.”

But this is a new CW, always searching for inexpensive programming. That “The Chosen” has streamed previously on multiple online platforms including Peacock, Prime and Netflix suggests the CW’s nonexclusive airing probably won’t cost the network a lot of money. And picking up “The Chosen” hearkens back to The CW’s founding in 2006 when the final season of “7th Heaven” aired on the channel.

A spin-off movie from “The Chosen,” “The Chosen: The Messengers,” aired on The CW in December, attracting 742,000 total viewers, The CW’s third most-watched special of the 2022-23 TV season.

“(Christians) are a third of the world,” said Brad Schwartz, CW entertainment president. “It’s the largest niche audience in the world, and they are currently served with really poor product.

“For the most part, faith-based content historically has been cheap or too on the nose. And ‘The Chosen’ is extraordinarily well-produced, well-acted, well-written and with a very large budget. It’s the biggest hit show in the country that nobody knows about.”

When The CW picked up the first three seasons of “The Chosen” for The CW, Schwartz said in the press release that the series is “based on the biggest IP of all time,” prompting some to roll their eyes at the notion of considering the Bible to be intellectual property in the same sense as, say, Marvel.

“The point is, ‘Harry Potter’ has sold 500 million copies, right? That’s adorable compared to the Bible,” Schwartz said. “The Bible has sold 5 billion copies.”

“The Chosen” premieres on Pittsburgh’s WPCW-TV, Channel 19, at 8 p.m. tonight, with the network planning to air episodes weekly on Sunday nights through Christmas Eve (episodes will also stream the next day at cwtv.com).

Although WPCW will disaffiliate from The CW in September, Schwartz said The CW will find a new linear TV home in Pittsburgh.

“We are not concerned with our distribution, and every market that we are losing is going to be fine,” he said. “I can’t speak specifically as to the negotiations or timing, but at every meeting, I’ve heard it’s going to be fine. Every one of them will be replaced.”

“The Chosen” begins with Jesus (Jonathan Roumie) as an adult, three years before his crucifixion.

Since the series was originally made for online streaming at new.thechosen.tv, the show’s episodes don’t conform to traditional network episode running times.

“(‘Chosen’ creator) Dallas (Jenkins) knows this content and knows this audience better than maybe anyone in the country,” Schwartz said. “And he really didn’t want to edit his show.”

The CW will allow episodes to run one hour, 90 minutes and, in a few cases, two hours.

“We are going to respect the creators’ vision of the show and instead of having to cut episodes to an hour, if he wants to just make it longer instead of shorter, that’s what we’re doing,” Schwartz said. “And in some cases, he’s going to have to add a little bit of ancillary content, whether it’s a discussion roundtable or some outtakes. He’s going to figure out some ways for the ones that are a little short to extend them because he’d rather not edit or cut scenes from the show.”

Katherine Warnock, head of original content at “The Chosen,” said the series will eventually run seven seasons with Jesus’ death coming at the end of season six.

“By the end of season three, we’re seeing things really begin to spill over. We see that we’ve broken out of Judea, we’ve broken into diverse people groups hearing the message of Jesus and the tension and the joy in parallel that that causes,” she said, noting the company is halfway through filming season four, which will stream next year and then may also play on The CW. “We have a lot of plot twists and turns. We’ve taken the biblical context, we’ve taken the cultural context and dove in between the lines of biblical and historic context and we’ve created some remarkable storylines that we feel are going to not only deeply encourage people but also challenge and create some journeys from darkness to light, from pain to joy.”