"This is TBN".
The following program is paid for by you, the TBN Partners, and is only made possible with your generous support.
— TBN Announcer
From coast to coast and around the world, it's time to Praise the Lord!
— Praise the Lord opening
The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)
is a non-profit Christian network launched by Paul and Jan Crouch in The '70s, and has since grown to become the largest religious broadcaster on the planet. It has dozens of affiliated stations in practically every corner of the globe. Despite its wide reach, it isn't that well-known outside of the non-inclusive world of the evangelical Christians in its target audience, or people who grew up in evangelical Christian homes (whether or not they still identify as evangelical and/or Christian).
TBN is largely responsible for giving many televangelists their first national exposure. It was the first national broadcaster to carry Pat Robertson's The 700 Club, and launched pastors like Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley, Paula White, and T.D. Jakes to international prominence. Apart from daily sermons and Bible readings, TBN also airs Christian movies and videos; documentaries about Creationism or America's "Christian heritage"; and Saturday Morning Cartoons with a religious slant. Occasionally it will also air concerts featuring Christian musical artists.
The network is best known for its often-controversial TV preachers and constant fundraising through telethons. The latter has drawn criticism for helping justify the lavish lifestyle of the Crouch family. The "prosperity gospel" they preach claims that God rewards Christians with material blessings if they donate large amounts of money to TBN. Christian critics, financial watchdogs, and even Crouch family members have accused TBN of using the "prosperity gospel" message to make desperate followers part with their money, which is allegedly used to buy mansions, jets, and luxury cars for the owners. (This has earned it the nickname "The Blasphemy Network.")
TBN's subsidiary networks
All of these networks are usually carried on the digital subchannels of TBN's stations:- TBN Inspire: A network which previously operated as The Church Channel (devoted to church services and instructional programming) until 2016, although some of its previous programming has remained in off-peak hours. The network was then rebranded as the Hillsong Channel as part of a partnership with the Australian megachurch of the same name until 2022, when it was renamed TBN Inspire partly as a result of multiple controversies involving a number of Hillsong-affiliated churches and pastors since 2020.
- TBN Enlace USA: A feed of the Costa Rican-based, Spanish-language religious network Enlace.
- Smile: Formerly Smile of a Child, it primarily carries children's programming.
- Positiv: Formerly JCTV and JUCE TV, a channel devoted to Christian films.
- TBN Salsa: Launched 2015, it is targeted towards English-speaking Hispanic Americans. Following the launch of Salsa, due to technical limitations with TBN's digital transmitters, the over-the-air feeds of JUCE and Smile were merged — with Smile airing in the daytime and JUCE airing at night (they were still 24-hour channels on digital platforms). As of 2022, the channel is available on most cable providers.
Shows aired by TBN and its affiliates:
TBN-produced shows include:
- Inside the Trinity Family of Networks, hosted by Matt & Laurie Crouch
- Christian Celebrity Showcase - a half-hour weekly program showing archival footage of celebrity testimonials.
- Praise (formerly Praise the Lord) – a two-hour talk/teaching/variety program, formerly hosted by Paul and Jan Crouch.
- Travel the Road – a show featuring two missionaries visiting war-torn locations in search of converts.
- Virtual Memory - a Game Show focusing on Bible-related trivia questions, yet oddly mixed with a computer theme.
Programs carried by TBN and its sister channels include:
- 3-2-1 Penguins!
- The 700 Club - with Pat Robertson
- Christian World News - a weekly newscast from Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network
- ACLJ This Week - with Jay Sekulow
- Believer's Voice of Victory - with Kenneth Copeland
- The Big Garage - one of the few non-Christian shows aired by TBN's Smile subchannel.
- Breakthrough - with Rod Parsley
- Coral Ridge Hour - with D. James Kennedy
- Creflo Dollar - yes, that is his last name.
- Davey and Goliath - possibly the only program presented by a mainline denomination (broadcast rights expired in 2018)
- End of the Age - with Erwin Baxter
- Enjoying Everyday Life - with Joyce Meyer
- Ever Increasing Faith - with Frederick Price
- Evidence - with Dwight K. Nelson
- God Rocks!
- God's News Behind The News - Joe Van Koevering
- Hal Lindsey Report
- Hour of Power - with Robert Schuller
- Huckabee - arguably the "black sheep" of TBN's schedule, being a transplant from Fox News that has little-to-nothing to do with Christianity or the Bible
- It's Supernatural - with Sid Roth
- John Hagee Today and Cornerstone with John Hagee
- Joseph Prince
- Lassie
- Life Today - with James Robison
- Miss BG - one of the few non-Christian shows aired by TBN's Smile subchannel.
- Mustard Pancakes
- Patta Potta Monta (Going Wild, Going Green) - an anime series aired on Smile TV.
- Paula White Today
- Potter's Touch - with T.D. Jakes
- St. Bear's Dolls Hospital - aired on TBN's Smile subchannel.
- Swamp Critters
- Swiss Family Robinson
- Tales of Little Women
- This Is Your Day! - with Benny Hinn
- Turning Point - with David Jeremiah
- VeggieTales
- Way of the Master - with Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort
This network contains examples of:
- Adored by the Network:
- The Crouches themselves, as well as some of their frequent guests (usually popular televangelists like Benny Hinn).
- In the summer of 2013, TBN dropped most of its Saturday morning kiddie shows in favor of running hours of VeggieTales and 3-2-1 Penguins!. As of 2021, they currently air the former on their Saturday lineup.
- Berserk Button: For Paul Crouch, "heretic hunters" who criticized the prosperity gospel.
- Big Fancy House: The Crouches own about a dozen, which has done little to silence their critics.
- TBN's headquarters in Costa Mesa — known locally as "Jesus' Wedding Cake" — counts as one. Here is the exterior◊ and interior. TBN has a lot of other studios and properties like this, including the former Twitty City.
- Before major remodeling in the mid-2000's, TBN's sets were made to resemble Big Fancy Houses and were obnoxiously◊ lavish◊.
- TBN's headquarters in Costa Mesa — known locally as "Jesus' Wedding Cake" — counts as one. Here is the exterior
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Crouches, as divulged through numerous court documents between feuding members made public over the last few years.
- Bowdlerise: Averted during airings of The Passion of the Christ. In marked contrast to the rest of its programming, which is rated TV-G, TBN airs The Passion uncut and slaps it with a TV-MA rating and an on-air disclaimer.
- Oddly enough, TBN edits the much milder Jesus of Nazareth miniseries.
- Smile TV (as well as other religious stations that carried children's tv content) does this with some of the originally-secular children's shows on its schedule. (The Reppies has its songs redubbed to mention God, while Dooley and Pals adds "Fun Bible Facts".)
- Christian Rock: Frequently showcased, especially on JUCE TV.
- Creator Couple: Paul and Jan Crouch, until their deaths in November 2013 and May 2016, respectively.
- Died During Production: Paul Crouch's death in November 2013 effectively canceled Behind the Scenes, though his widow and children launched a similar show (Inside the TBN Family of Networks, which deals with Exactly What It Says on the Tin most of the time) in its place.
- Distanced from Current Events: Averted with Meggido, the TBN-produced sequel to The Omega Code, which was released just four days before the 9/11 attacks. Afterwards, TBN decided to use the national trauma to market their movie and inserted fresh images of the burning World Trade Center into a trailer. When viewers wrote in to complain, Paul Crouch scoffed at them for taking offense and replayed the trailer on his show.
- Edutainment Show: All of their children's programming qualifies as this, as all of them aim to educate kids on Christianity and the Bible to varying degrees. The shows aimed at the younger end of the age spectrum also teach letters, numbers, etc.
- Guest Host: Paul and Jan Crouch hosted Praise the Lord until the early 2000s, when old age and increasing health problems forced them to leave. The program is now hosted by their son Matt and his wife Laurie.
- Hilarious Outtakes: In the mid-1990s, one show featured a clipreel of these featuring sets falling down, light bulbs exploding in the middle of fiery sermons, various pranks and hysterics - and managed to make a scriptural lesson out of it, too.
- Implied Death Threat: How many people interpreted these comments by Paul and Matt Crouch not long after Brittany Koper (Paul's granddaughter and Matt's niece) started accusing TBN of fraud.
- According to Koper, the Crouches routinely dished these out. She has claimed in affidavits that Matt Crouch took out a gun during a confrontation with her, while Paul Crouch compared her to John the Baptist (who was beheaded).
- And there's also the times when Paul and his fellow televangelists threatened their critics on the air, such as this message.
- Letterbox: When it airs older Bible films, like The Greatest Story Ever Told. This was somewhat amusing in the days before 1080p HD, as the opening credits for that movie were too small to read. This issue partly lies to do with the fact that TBN doesn't make its HD feed available over-the-airnote , requiring a cable or satellite subscription, or access to its streaming service iTBN via its website and mobile app to receive it.
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: TBN used to have a practice of repeating new episodes of Praise the Lord at least once, specifically so viewers could record an episode they liked. The advent of things like DVR, and the launch of an online video archive called iTBN, made this practice obsolete.
- Moral Guardians: The Crouches, specifically their son Paul Crouch, Jr., contributed to the "satanic panic" of The '80s by famously claiming that Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" contained demonic messages.
- The Moral Substitutes: Two of its sister channels, Smile TV (formerly known as Smile of a Child TV), advertised as an alternative to Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network; and Positiv (formerly JCTV and JUCE TV), a channel patterned after MTV and its ilk, aimed at teens/young adults.
- Old Shame:
- TBN was actually co-founded by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, who later left the network and subsequently saw their own PTL Network be destroyed by a notorious fraud/sex scandal in The '80s. In the wake of that, the Bakkers have been given the Un-person treatment in TBN's official history, with the Crouches getting sole credit for founding the network.
- The decision in 2020 to drop longtime TBN staple Kenneth Copeland's broadcast appears to be this in light of Copeland's wealth and lavish spending - particularly on private jets - resulting in Copeland coming under increased media scrutiny in recent years.
- Patriotic Fervor: The vanity/copyright image closing Praise the Lord shows an American flag superimposed over the Statue of Liberty.
- Its Fourth of July and Patriot Day programming is often of a right-wing and nationalistic bent.
- One more recent example of this was when TBN began airing Huckabee, hosted by former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, which had Channel Hopped from Fox News.
- Real Joke Name: More than one critic has commented on the irony of a wealth-and-prosperity preacher being named Creflo Dollar.
- Religion Is Right: The main message of the pro-Creationism programs it airs.
- Screwed by the Network: This happened to JUCE TV and Smile of a Child TV in June 2015, when both were reduced to 12-hour blocks on the .3 subchannel of its broadcast stations to make room for the new TBN Salsa (which took over Smile's former .5 slot). Both networks still operate as 24-hour networks, but it requires subscribing to a cable or satellite provider that carries either network (some of which, as TBN has even noted in some promotions, have dropped Smile and JUCE since 2014) or watching them online via TBN's website and mobile apps. This apparently was the result of TBN's transmission equipment not being capable of adding a sixth subchannel, even though the main TBN feed wasn't broadcast in HD over-the-air at that time.
- TBN Salsanote itself was screwed from the get-go by having its distribution limited to subchannels of its over-the-air stations, not even being made available on its iTBN streaming service. TBN hasn't even bothered to make its programming listings available online, either via its main website or that of TBN Salsa, or via online/mobile television listings services (which still incorrectly still list 24-hour listings for Smile and JUCE on separate subchannels in their broadcast station listings in TBN's OTA markets).
- On a couple of occasions, TBN refused to air programs for political reasons. Hal Lindsey, a controversial End Times evangelist, left TBN when the network objected to his Islamophobic commentary, but later returned in a different formatnote . A few years later, Jack Van Impe, another End Times evangelist, removed his program from TBN after they pulled an episode in which he criticized other evangelists, which reportedly violated a TBN policy forbidding personal attacks.
- After Paul Crouch passed away in 2013, TBN axed most of the prophecy-related programming on its schedule at the alleged behest of Jan Crouch, who unlike Paul did not support the pre-tribulation (read: Rapture) interpretation of Bible prophecy. Most of the shows were moved to the less-viewed Church Channel while the main TBN schedule became lighter and more centristnote .
- Jan Crouch's death in 2016 spelled the end for the Church Channel, which was pushed aside for a new collaboration with Australia's Hillsong Church known as the Hillsong Channelnote . Traditional programs were done away with in favor of the more cheerful and youth-skewing views of Hillsong, which seemed especially jarring as it launched the day after Jan's death.
- Spoofed with Their Own Words: Averted in The '90s, when TBN wanted to book Genesis to appear after they released the song "Jesus He Knows Me". TBN apparently thought, what with the title of the song and the biblical significance of the band's name, that "Jesus He Knows Me" was a praise song. Instead, it turned out that the song was Phil Collins' savage satire of recent televangelism scandals. Once they figured this out, TBN dropped any interest in hosting a performance.
- The Daily Show had a segment during Craig Kilborn's tenure called "God Stuff", which often poked fun at Paul and Jan Crouch by playing weird clips from their TV appearances.
John Bloom (a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs): That was Jan Crouch reminding us that God can sometimes be a harsh mistress. As well as a rotten hairdresser. - The Daily Show had a segment during Craig Kilborn's tenure called "God Stuff
- Stepford Smiler: It has long been alleged, first by the Los Angeles Times and then by their granddaughter, that Paul and Jan Crouch lived separately for years despite still appearing on television as a devoted married couple.
- The Rival: Currently it's Daystar, another megachurch-focused cable network. Other rivals have come and gone:
- PTL was founded by Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the original TBN founders, but their scandals in The '80s brought it down.
- Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) was a friendly rival — Pat Robertson's The 700 Club aired on both channels — but that channel eventually switched to mostly-secular programming, got bought and sold a couple of times, and is now known as Freeform.
- Odyssey, a channel formed from the merger of two smaller nets, made a similar switch to secular shows (at first as a joint venture between Hallmark and The Jim Henson Company) and eventually became The Hallmark Channel at the Turn of the Millennium.
- One channel that has stuck around however is the TCT Network, which even provides the same kinds of programming and also exists as an over-the-air network; while many personalities such as Laverne and Edith Tripp began migrating to that network when the younger Crouches began taking an increased role in TBN's operations in the mid-2000s.
- Telethon: Ten-day/afternoon-long "Praise-a-thons" in the spring and fall, and smaller-scale "Macedonian Calls" during the summer. Similar fundraising pitches turned up whenever Paul Crouch said God told him to start one.
- Troubled Production: In the very beginning. When it debuted on a California UHF station in 1973, the money was so light that the ministry nearly tanked on the very day it launched. Paul Crouch admitted in an autobiography that he bluffed his viewers into thinking that an anonymous donor (really himself) had bailed out the ministry, which persuaded them to donate more and more money.
- Uncanny Valley Makeup: Jan Crouch, a particularly notorious case◊. Allegedly, Jan Crouch and Tammy Faye Bakker didn't like each other when the Bakkers worked at TBN, with makeup being just one of the ways they tried to compete with each other.
- Un-person: The network's founders, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, due to their fall from grace in The '80s (see the Trivia page for more).
- Before the PTL scandal; much of this began when Paul Crouch (who had once been Jim Bakker's youth pastor in Minnesota) and Jim Bakker had an unspecified falling-out shortly after TBN launched that resulted in the Bakkers leaving to strike out on their own.
- A more recent Un-person is Paul Crouch, Jr., who was the heir apparent until his familial relation to Brittany Koper led to him allegedly becoming collateral damage in the legal battle between her and the rest of the Crouch family. While he was the regular host of Behind the Scenes before his firing, TBN has barely mentioned him since. He now works for the Word Network.
- Viewers Like You: Phrased as "Because of your generous support".
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