NBC Cancels 'A.D. The Bible Continues'

Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus in "A.D. The Bible Continues" (NBC Photo).

The NBC mini-series "A.D. The Bible Continues" is not continuing. The network has canceled the Mark Burnett/Roma Downey follow-up to the blockbuster miniseries "The Bible."

The mini series dropped considerably in the ratings from its precursor when it debuted without a lead in and quickly did manageable business, but not of the blockbuster kind as the Peacock network had envisioned. "A.D. The Bible Continues" debuted with a solid 2.3 rating in the 18-49 demo for a total of 9.5 million viewers. But after its 12-episode run, it averaged a 0.7 rating for its last two episodes and 6.7 million viewers for its entire run which ended on June 21.

But Burnett and Downey see the mini series as a potential perfect tentpole for the proposed launch of the OTT channel that they have been working on with MGM to form United Artists Media Group last fall. But that channel won't likely launch until 2016 or 2017. The channel would focus on faith and religion-themed programming.

The mini series featured Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus, along with Richard Coyle, James Callis, Babou Alieu Ceesay, Chipo Chung and Adam Levy.