But Sunday morning religious programming has gone the way of broadcast cartoons...on most non-TBN/Daystar stations they are GONE. Replaced with infomercials, cheap barter syndicated shows, news, or even E/I shows.
-crainbebo
The TV landscape has changed a lot in the last 30 to 40 years. Evangelism on broadcast television was probably at its peak between the mid-1970s and the early 1990s. Back in the day, the paid religious shows were just about the only “paid programming” that existed. It wasn’t uncommon at all for a TV station, particularly one in a small market, to have a 3 to 5 hour block of paid religion on Sunday morning, and it was quite the little bonanza for the stations. The more prominent evangelists, such as Schuller, Jimmy Swaggart, Rex Humbard, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, etc., were on in practically every market during their respective peaks. And some evangelists had weekday shows, too, such as Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland, etc. And on top of all that, there were the Billy Graham crusade specials that came along several times a year. Back in the day, Oral Roberts, Jack Van Impe, and maybe some more that I can’t think of right now, would even occasionally have a prime-time special.
The televangelist scandals of the late 1980s, the proliferation of cable/satellite and networks like TBN, Daystar, etc., have probably all contributed to the decline of religion on broadcast television. As far as paid programming goes, I imagine a lot of station managers are more comfortable running infomercials on their stations than paid religion. Infomercials can also be more flexibly scheduled. On the other hand, I’m sure there are managers who don’t care just as long as the ministry pays the bill on time. Pressure to clear the Sunday morning network news shows has probably also contributed to more stations airing fewer paid religious shows. Many medium and large market stations are also very interested in doing local news on Sunday mornings. I’m sure that that the paid religious shows had a lot to do with the demise of Sunday morning cartoons on ABC and CBS.
While some evangelists are fairly prevalent on broadcast TV (Joel Osteen and Pat Robertson, to name a few), most have taken their shows to religious networks like TBN. A few preachers like Kenneth Copeland still show up on smaller stations, too. While I’m sure that TBN doesn’t give a show the exposure that a broadcast network affiliate would, the ministries can buy time on one or more religious networks and have their shows on at the same time all across the country without having to put together an ad-hoc grid of local stations that would air the shows at different times.
