NBC Pulls ‘Daniel;’ KFDF Wants to Buy

NBC announced on Jan. 24 that it was pulling the plug on its controversial television show “The Book of Daniel” after four of this season’s six episodes had aired. The show was plagued by low ratings and high-profile protests from conservative Christian groups.

The announcement came after several stations, including KNWA and KFTA, the NBC affiliates serving Northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith, had stopped broadcasting the show.

KFDF, Arkansas UPN 10, based in Fort Smith, immediately picked up the season’s remaining three shows after they were dropped by KNWA. KFDF aired one on Jan. 20 but will go back to regular programming instead of showing the last two episodes in their regular 9 p.m. Friday timeslot.

“I hate seeing networks cave,” said Neal Ardman, vice president of television operations for Equity Broadcasting of Little Rock, which owns KFDF. “I wasn’t surprised at all.”

Ardman said he is working with NBC to air the last two episodes of “Daniel.”

“Hopefully, we will be running them by mid-February,” he said.

The show depicts an Episcopalian minister struggling with a variety of Earthly problems, including an addiction to the painkiller Vicodin. On the show, he has a homosexual Republican son, a 16-year-old daughter who sells drugs and a 16-year-old adopted son who is sleeping with the bishop’s daughter. An actor on the show plays Jesus in the minister’s imagined conversations.

The series began on Jan. 6

“This show is basically ‘Desperate Housewives’ meets ‘Touched by an Angel’ meets ‘The Sopranos,'” Ardman said. “It’s just another television show. It’s entertainment. It’s fiction. I tell everybody who has a problem with it, ‘Get over it.'”

Before airing the first episode, Ardman said he would lose money on the show, “but it’s a matter of principal.”

“It’s a sad day for all of us when television stations start bowing to, not public pressure, but special-interest pressure,” he said.

“I don’t agree with the opinions and the morality of this show, but that’s not my job,” Ardman said. “Broadcasters need to stand up to special interest groups and defend freedom of speech and free exchange of ideas and opinions.”

KFDF broadcasts over the air on Channel 10 in Fort Smith and via Cox Cable on Channel 22 in Fort Smith and Channel 4 in Northwest Arkansas.

In December, the conservative American Family Association began calling on affiliates and advertisers to bail out of “Daniel.” Stations have been flooded with e-mails and calls from viewers objecting to the show. National advertisers also bailed out.

MediaWeek reported that NBC aired just 23 commercials, or 12.5 minutes during the two-hour premiere of “Daniel” on Jan. 6. That’s about half the usual amount for prime time.