"The Bible" TV series produced by Mark Burnett, one of the most prolific producers on reality television and known for "Survivor," "The Voice," "Shark Tank" and "Celebrity Apprentice," premiered Sunday at 8 p.m. on History Channel.

The TV series are a 10-hour adaptation of the Bible (Old and New Testament) and will run for five weeks on Sundays (see schedule below). Today's first 2-hour episode "The Beginnings," opened with the story of Noah, featured Abraham reaching the Promised Land and ended with Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God.

"The challenge isn't reaching people who already love the Bible and go to church every week. We know they will watch," Burnett told the New York Daily News. "It's reaching people in their teens and early 20s, who have grown up on action-adventure shows filled with special effects."

"We have incredible special effects with Moses parting the Red Sea, Jesus walking on water. We have this amazing international cast. We set out to create scale," he told the Los Angeles Times.

Burnett collaborated with his wife actress Roma Downey during four years with a $22 million budget to film the docudrama, according to media reports. The series were reportedly filmed in Morocco and the movie's cast includes Downey as Mary and Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado as Jesus.

The show has reportedly been endorsed by mega-church pastors Rick Warren from Saddleback Church, Joel Osteen, evangelist minister T.D. Jakes, Samuel Rodriguez and Charles Jenkins unlike many previous films and TV shows on Christianity that have been criticized by church leaders. The conservative group Focus on the Family has also supported the show.

"The Bible" Upcoming Airings (source:History Channel):

March 04, 2013 - 12:01-02:01AM

March 06, 2013 - 09:00-11:02PM

March 07, 2013 - 01:01-03:03AM

March 10, 2013 - 06:00-08:00PM

"The Bible" Reactions

Many viewers turned to Facebook to give their opinions about the first episode and among them, several discussed about a segment of it where ninja angels appeared in Sodom.

"I love this show. The ninja angels were awesome!" Dominique Nelson wrote on Facebook.

"The 'angel' ninjas in Sodom were a little much, LOL" another user called George Rick Stofer commented.

"I don't remember the story of Sodom having the part that says 'and then the angel of the lord turned into a kung fu master and began smiting' it's not that i'm nitpicking, really it's not, but when the angels start dolling out butt whoopins it changes the intent," user Abbie Jackson wrote on Facebook.

Another user, Don Marsolais, wrote: "I looked forward to this show ever since it began showing clips. Unfortunately, this is one occasion that the hype just doesn't measure up to the truth. I seriously doubt that one of the angels that "escorted" Lot and his family out of Sodom was a Ninja Warrior. I changed the channel after this. I won't be spending any more time watching this poor effort. I expected more from Mark Burnett and Roma Downy."

"As a devout Catholic I was looking forward to this series, but I wish there were less CG and ninja effects... but I am also hoping that the coming episodes will be better. I love the Bible, and to see the horrible comments here by so many people who do not believe just convinces me why we have to pray even harder for the non-believers," reader Jackiecook1950 commented on The Hollywood Reporter's message board.
Watch a trailer for "The Bible" below:

Tags: The Bible history channel