‘Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers’ Is The Best New Show of 2023

Top five answers on the board: Name a TV show America just can’t seem to get enough of. I’ll save you the trouble, friend. The number one answer is Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers.

Airing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons on the once-fledging but now prospering G.O.D.D. Network (the show rests on Sundays), Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers has, some say inexplicably, morphed into the surprise hit of 2023. Described by many as “exactly like Family Feud,” the evangelical-themed game show has a simple formula: Baby Billy comes out and makes some jokes about current events or hot styles (as one does). He then introduces the two competing families and engages in some light banter and general chit-chat (often robotically asking “Who are you?” and “What do you do?”), always making sure to kiss the female contestants on the cheek. Per the show’s website: “One by one they compete, doing trivias [sic] from the Bible.”

The setup is familiar but the execution is unique (to put it lightly). Former child star turned televangelist Baby Billy Freeman — whose distinct look can best be described as “Fancy Cowboy Orville Redenbacher”— serves as the show’s charismatic emcee, with his seemingly perpetually pregnant wife Tiffany handing out “presents” and his baby son Lionel acting as the “announcer in training.” You might think that Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers is a spiritual carbon copy of the long-running game show Family Feud — both Steve Harvey and Mark Goodson Productions declined our request for comment — but that’s a claim Baby Billy vehemently denies.

“It ain’t no Family Feud,” Baby Billy shouted in Decider’s general direction during a brief conversation between tapings (industry scuttlebutt speculates that the show shoots as many as 20 episodes a day). “This is Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers! Roll that around your mouth. That fun, ain’t it?”

That steadfast delusion is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the iconoclastic enigma known as Baby Billy, a man intimately familiar with the accouterments of fame. The silver-tongued Renaissance man first felt the bright lights of stardom as a child singer, performing with his sister, the late Aimee-Leigh Gemstone, in a Gospel song and dance duo that produced the hit single “Misbehavin.'” The peculiar but admittedly catchy earworm developed an ironic cult following, with its brief yet frequent airplay famously leading to iconic DJ Casey Kasem leaving the music industry before being seduced back into radio after hearing the opening riff of “Walk Like an Egyptian” by The Bangles.

Before returning to the spotlight with his buzzy new game show, the loquacious hustler worked as a televangelist, health elixir guru,* and Las Vegas showman. But the success of Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers has introduced the man known affectionally to some as “Uncle” Baby Billy to a whole new audience, with prime-time reruns routinely defeating new episodes of NBC’s five highest-rated series: Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Chicago Justice, and even Dick Wolf’s new Richard Moll/Scottie Pippen-led quasi-Night Court-spinoff Chicago Bulls.

Just don’t mention the obvious Family Feud comparison to Baby Billy or the program’s menacing trio of executive producers: Jesse, Kelvin, and Judy Gemstone.

“I’m not trying to make fights [sic] with Family Feuds [sic] but I’ll punch my full woman fist right up Steve Harvey’s tiny p or b-hole, dog. That’s facts [sic],” Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers co-executive producer Judy Gemstone told Decider moments after cursing out a production assistant for not bringing her the”fruity M&M’s” [Skittles]. “Double B came up with that shit. For reals.”

For reals indeed. The survey says that Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers is a rousing success.

The final two episodes of The Righteous Gemstones Season 3 air Sunday, July 30 from 10:00-11:15 p.m. ET on HBO. The series has already been renewed for a fourth season.

*Editor’s note: Baby Billy Freeman’s Health Elixir and its “ancient biblical formula” has not been approved by the FDA.