Divine Programming: Negotiating Christianity in American Dramatic Television Production 1996-2016

From the mid-90s to the present, television drama with religious content has come to reflect the growing cultural divide between white middle-America and concentrated urban elites. As author Charlotte E. Howell argues in this book, by 2016, television narratives of white Christianity had become entirely disconnected from the religion they were meant to represent. Programming labeled 'family-friendly' became a euphemism for white, middlebrow America, and developing audience niches became increasingly significant to serial dramatic television. Utilizing original case studies and interviews, Divine Programming investigates the development, writing, producing, marketing, and positioning of key series including 7th Heaven, Friday Night Lights, Rectify, Supernatural, Jane the Virgin, Daredevil, and Preacher. As this book shows, there has historically been a deep ambivalence among television production cultures regarding religion and Christianity more specifically. It illustrates how middle-American television audiences lost significance within the Hollywood television industry and how this in turn has informed and continues to inform television programming on a larger scale. In recent years, upscale audience niches have aligned with the perceived tastes of affluent, educated, multicultural, and-importantly-secular elites. As a result, the televised representation of white Christianity had to be othered, and shifted into the unreality of fantastic genres to appeal to niche audiences. To examine this effect, Howell looks at religious representation through four approaches - establishment, distancing, displacement, and use - and looks at series across a variety of genres and outlets in order to provied varied analyses of each theme.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures Introduction: Christianity, Religion, and Hollywood Television Production Cultures Two Preachers, 2016 and 1996 Understanding Religion in Hollywood's Production Culture The Boom in Religious Representation in the Post-Network Era (early 2000s-2016) Religion Among Expansive Options: Toward Peak TV (2015-2016) Methods and Chapters Part One: Establishing White Christianity's Middlebrow Associations Chapter One - Christianity's Broad Appeal in the 1990s: Touched by an Angel and 7th Heaven A Brief History: Establishing The Norms of Representing Christianity on American Television The Neo-Network Legacy: Defining and Avoiding "Religious TV" Within Middlebrow Appeal Old Networks and New Netlets: Broadcast in the Neo-Network Era Religious Messages and the Middlebrow Audience: Touched by an Angel Attempting to Avoid "Preachy" : 7th Heaven Conclusion Chapter Two - Biblical Miniseries in the 2010s: Mark Burnett, Roma Downey, and Faithful Christian Representation Touched by an Angel as Model: Roma Downey and Mark Burnett's Pursuit of Faithful TV in an Increasingly Upscale-oriented Industry The Bible Miniseries: The Rewards of Risk for the History Channel A.D.: The Bible Continues and The Dovekeepers: Failures of Faith on Network Television The Persistent Perception of Antagonism between Faith and Mainstream Television Part Two: Distancing Christianity Through Place and Race Chapter Three - Southern Realism: Christianity in Friday Night Lights and Rectify Christianity in Quality Representations of the American South Southern Realism and Authenticity Claims in the Post-Network Era Heartland Subjects, Quality Audience: Friday Night Lights Authentic Artistic Vision, Quality Channel: Rectify Conclusion Chapter Four - Non-White Christian Dramas: Exploration through Otherness in Jane the Virgin and Greenleaf Latinx Catholicism on TV The Tele-Novelty of Jane the Virgin's Catholicism Christianity and Black TV Identity Oprah's Soap Opera on the Megachurch Pulpit: Greenleaf Conclusion Part Three: Displacing Christianity in Fantastic Genres Chapter Five - Religion as Unreality: Fantastic TV's Generic Displacement of Christianity Containment Through Displacement: Battlestar Galactica Abstraction to Supernatural Spirituality: Lost Minimizing Genre, Maximizing Quality: The Leftovers Adapting Edginess and the Pursuit of God: Preacher Conclusion Chapter Six - The Biblical Book of Revelation as Mythology: Apocalyptic TV The Post-Christian End of the World and Apocalyptic Television Containment Through Pastiche: Supernatural Containment Through Denial: Dominion and Constantine Conclusion Part Four: Acknowledging Christianity in the Era of Peak TV Chapter Seven - Streaming Religion: Netflix's Daredevil and Amazon's Hand of God Peak TV is Still TV: New Television, Old Ideologies Netflix and Amazon: History, Branding, and Models of Success in a Changing Industry Religion in the Context of Marvel's Brand: Daredevil Religion to Cultivate Edge: Amazon's Hand of God Conclusion Conclusion - Polarized Culture and Dual Approaches to Christianity on TV The Tipping Point Appendix A: Interviews Bibliography