Watch: Zealots help the apostles escape from Jerusalem, and more, in new clips from A.D. The Bible Continues

The Nielsen ratings are in, and the news for A.D. The Bible Continues is… good, but could be better.

The first episode of Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s follow-up to The Bible had 9.5 million viewers overall when it aired on NBC last night. That was enough to win the evening, but it was less than the 10 to 13 million viewers that each two-hour episode of The Bible got when it was shown on the History Channel two years ago.

The softer opening could be due in part to the fact that A.D. was up against ABC’s annual broadcast of The Ten Commandments, which had 6.8 million viewers last night. Apparently ABC has been showing that film on Saturday nights in recent years, but this year they moved it to Sunday to put it head-to-head with A.D.

A.D. did do better than another recent Burnett & Downey production featuring violent clashes between Jews and Romans in first-century Palestine, i.e. The Dovekeepers. That two-part miniseries had 8.98 million viewers when its first part aired on CBS last Tuesday and 6.4 million viewers when the second part aired on Wednesday.

Time will tell how future episodes of A.D. do, and whether the network feels there is enough of an audience here to greenlight another season.

In the meantime, the producers have released several new clips, revisiting the first episode and looking ahead to the episodes to come.

First, a recap of the episode as a whole:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJGgWEMmgNs

Next, a four-and-a-half minute clip of Jesus’ trial before Pilate and crucifixion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5xIcotbGtw

Then, sneak peeks of the disciples escaping Jerusalem (with help from the Zealots?)…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyWQ4hVRhv4

…and reuniting with Jesus in Galilee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyNNanBZUFk

And finally, a preview of the upcoming episodes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nByYlvJqyHk

Also, this video of Juan Pablo Di Pace discussing the role of Jesus was posted to the show’s YouTube page yesterday before the first episode aired:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvdGMMYLY4

Check out earlier trailers and other videos here:

• The first trailer (November 26, 2014)
• The ‘By Our Love’ music video (December 19, 2014)
• The ‘The Next Chapter of the Greatest Story Ever Told’ TV spot (January 12, 2015)
• The second trailer (January 17, 2015)
• The Super Bowl spot (February 1, 2015)
• The Newsboys’ ‘We Believe’ music video (February 10, 2015)
• The ‘First Look’ video (February 18, 2015)
• The ‘Special Preview’ video (February 24, 2015)
• The ‘Miracles’ clip, the ‘Igniting a Rebellion’, ‘He’s a Dangerous Man’ and ‘Power, Passion, Sacrifice and Glory’ previews, the Spanish trailer, the ‘33 Days’ video and the WNDU and KPRC interviews (March 10, 2015)
• The ‘On Location’ featurette and the WWLP and Entertainment Tonight interviews (March 16, 2015)
• The ‘Mother Mary’, ‘Peter’, ‘John’ and ‘Mary Magdalene’ sneak peeks, the EPK materials, the ‘The Next Chapter of the Greatest Story Ever Told’ and ‘Beyond A.D. with Jason Kennedy’ previews, and the Tony Evans, Geoff Tunnicliffe, O.S. Hawkins and Joel C. Hunter endorsements (March 20, 2015)
• The half-hour making-of special, the ‘Caiaphas’ and ‘Pilate’ sneak peeks, the Today show set visit, the Zap2it interview, the Roma Downey video on prayer for Guideposts, the Jefferson Bethke and ‘Faith Raves’ videos, and the Sam Rodriguez, Pat Robertson, Ronnie Floyd and Jim Daly endorsements (March 25, 2015)
• The extended and ‘Stay with Me’ trailers, two previews, the Tonight Show interview, the ‘Peter’, ‘John’, ‘Mary Magdalene’, ‘Mother Mary’, ‘Caiaphas’ and ‘Pilate’ character profiles, and the Bishop T.D. Jakes, Robby Dawkins, Matthew Barnett, Danilo Montero, Mark Jobe, Ron Luce, Mark Batterson, Gabriel Salguero, Rick Warren, Cardinal Wuerl and Joel Osteen endorsements (April 4, 2015)