New 'Bible Challenge' respectful, fun, relevant

From the creators of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" comes "The American Bible Challenge." Comedian and author Jeff Foxworthy serves as host and tells OneNewsNow Bible enthusiasts from across the country compete to raise money for their favorite charities.

Foxworthy, currently seen on GSN in his role as host of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?", will utilize current and historical references and pose questions from narratives found in the world's bestselling book.

"It'll be respectful, but you can still have fun, and you can still make this thing relevant, and you can make it contemporary," he shares. "We really worked hard to do that, and I think we did. If everybody was out loving on people in their community like these people that are contestants, it would be a better world. It'd be a world where you weren't looking to the government to fix every problem, because we'd be fixing a lot of them."

The top weekly prize is $20,000, with the grand finale reaching $100,000. 18 teams will kick off "The American Bible Challenge," competing to support various organizations and Christian ministries.

Three teams will compete in each of the first six episodes. The winning teams from each of those six episodes will advance to play in two semi-final games. At the end of the final round, one team will be named champions.

"The thing that sold me on the show was nobody's playing for themselves; nobody's trying to win a dime for themselves," Foxworthy says. "They're taking all this money and they're loving on somebody in their community, whether it's a food bank or a youth crisis center. If you read the Bible, the only people Jesus ever got upset with were the Pharisees. They had all that head knowledge, but they had no heart knowledge."

"The American Bible Challenge" premiers on GSN Thursday, August 23 at 8:00 p.m. (EST). Interested viewers can play the game on Facebook, or download it onto an iPhone, iPad, or Android device.