Season 5 release date + your urgent questions answered

[Music] [Music] He [Music] Lord [Music] [Music] Throw me like a down in the water, watch the mud rise up. Dress me like a lamb for the slaughter, pour me in your cup. Should know we bring trouble, and trouble's going to find you here. Trouble, I was one way when you found me; I was not the one you see. And the only thing that happened was this stranger in between. And you can say, "Your Eyes Are Open," you might think your hands are clean, till the wind blows in, the dirt kicks up in ways you never seen. Yeah [Music] trouble. Yeah [Music] Trel use me till I'm scraping the bottom, make my well run dry. Check them coins, I know where you got them. Kiss me, kiss me by... I should have known we bring trouble, trouble's going to find you here. Yeah, trouble. I was one way when you found me; I was not the one you see. And the only thing that happened was this stranger in the tree. You can say, "Your Eyes Are Open," you might think your hands are clean, till the wind blows in, the dirt kicks up in ways you never seen. Yeah, trou… yeah [Music] Trel traveling. B that is… is good. I said trouble ain't bad if the bad is good. Yeah, make a little trouble if you… you know, trouble ain't bad if the bad is good. I was one way, you… me, not you see. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Trou… trou… going finally trou… [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

All right, merry early Christmas! That's why we've got lights on behind me. I know it's October 27th, but it is not too early for a Christmas Spectacular. It is not too early to be talking about the birth of Christ and to be giving gifts and to have all these great things for you on this great live stream. And we've got some… we've got so much to talk to you about tonight. And if you're watching this the next day, there's just so much for you to enjoy. Tonight, I'm really excited about this one. So what are we going to cover tonight? Well, first things first, I want you, if you are watching on YouTube or Facebook, to make a comment; just say something right now. I know they say this every time, but it does matter. It basically activates the algorithm and starts letting people know the live stream is getting… is getting going. So if you can also click the share button, you know, the share button, and just click the link to text it to a couple of friends, or click that notification bell, click the thumbs up, click all the little things—they all help. That's how we partner together; that's how you help me out in this thing, and then I'll help you out by giving you some fun stuff tonight. Now, not all of it's free, but it's going to be a fun live stream. So let's do this together. It's Christmas; let's start, you know, taking the gift that Jesus gave us, and then we start giving it to each other. So I've got a plethora—that's a good word, I like it—plethora is better than cornucopia, what do you think? Yeah, okay. It's more accessible; it's more accessible than cornucopia. I have a plethora of gifts for you tonight: new gifts, gifts that we're featuring at thechosen.gifts.com that you're going to enjoy. I've got a sneak peek of a scene from *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever* that you're going to get a… get a chance to watch, and I'm also going to give you a sneak peek, little teaser, of some of the extra content that we are going to be giving you if you watch the movie early. So lots to come on that. We're also doing Ask Me Anything, so this is where you get a chance to ask me anything—that's why it's called Ask Me Anything—so you can start doing that in the chat right now: in the YouTube chat, the Facebook chat, the app, whatever. We've already gotten some great questions in advance, so we started getting them on the Chosen Insiders page on Facebook and the fan club, and some of these questions are so good. We're going to be talking about our future projects at 52 Studios; we're going to be talking about like things like where the funding is coming from for these projects, what your role is in all of it, why we're doing the Book of Moses before we do the AXS show—some of that stuff is going to be discussed in detail, and so you're going to want to stick around for all of that. I'm also, yes, going to be giving you the season five release date. I know you've been excited about that. I keep getting people on social media who'll be like, "You know, just tell me when season five is coming out, or why don't you just release season five?" Just remember, it does take longer to make the show than it does to watch it, so just give us a little bit of patience here, but I do have some information for you that I will be sharing. I've also got a great video to show you of how your impact around the world has been realized just in the last year and how it's growing significantly. So our partnership has been captured in a really cool video that I'm going to show you at the end of the live stream that you're not going to want to miss. So big night; we're here together; we're going to be celebrating early Christmas. I can't wait to give you more of it. Now, what we're going to start with is all these new gifts and gifts that we are featuring at thechosen.gifts.com, www.thechosen.gifts.com, and I should have had you like make jingle bells noises because it's Christmas music. Like, how do you make… she… all right, you didn't see this: Jalene just took her… her sweatshirt and tried to shake it to make a noise. It did not work very well, but uh… thank you for the attempt. So here's the deal: I'm about to show you a plethora of new gifts or gifts that we're featuring for Christmas to you so that you can get an early… like a… an early… a start… a head start on Christmas gifts and all your Christmas shopping now. But here's something really cool: if you purchase gifts within the next 52 hours—why 52? I'll tell you in just a second—free shipping! You're hearing that right. Bob is sitting here—Bob Starns, who runs… who's our gifts guru—is running all of it. I'm actually smelling urine right now because he's so nervous about this. It doesn't necessarily… yeah, he just raised his hand like, "What are you doing to me?" You're… welling a mustard… yeah, he is wearing a mustard hoodie, but yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm making him… yeah, he… he's not crying; he's just… he's just… he's just nervous because free shipping for 52 hours costs us a little bit of money, but it's a gift; it's a gift for you. So for the next 52 hours, you get free shipping on anything you purchase at thechosen.gifts.com. So I'm going to start with why it's 52. Well, look at this: 52 Studios. I can't turn around; it says Studio; it says Studios on the back. Now, I know that this is like kind of an insider shirt… where's the hat? The 52 Studios hat. Thank you, Durban. Um, one of my favorite hats we've ever done; actually, it just looks really cool. Uh, let's see here; Durban's head is a little smaller than mine; the ego just really, you know… um… so the 52 hat and the 52… I don't typically wear hats, but this is actually one of the hats I would wear. Cuz it is… it just looks so cool. I can wear it with the shirt; that's a little on the nose, a little obnoxious, but you can wear them separately; either way… 52 Studios is our new… the… the new name of our company that is going to be doing multiple projects in the Chosen Universe. I'm going to talk to you about those… and not just announcing them because you've already hopefully seen them announced; we announced them at Chosen Con; we did a big live stream, but just so we can give you more details on some of these projects. But 52 Studios, it just… it just tells you… it tells whoever sees you in this shirt or in this hat that you're with us, right? And this is something that we've kind of built together, and so… more projects are to come from 52 Studios, but I know it's a bit of an insider thing. You don't have to buy this if you don't want to, but I think it actually looks pretty cool, and uh… it's got that… you know, because it's got the 52, it's a good conversation starter. So anytime I've worn it, someone has said, "What's that? What's 52? What's… what's the symbol?" And it gives you a chance to talk about it. So… you got the 52 options; that's why we're also giving you uh… free shipping for the next 52 hours. Now, if you're watching this on Monday or Tuesday, you better do it quickly because it's going to run out soon. If you're watching this on like Wednesday… right… yeah, Wednesday, it's… it's too late for this free shipping, but you can still get all these great gifts. So now we've got the new uh… zip-up hoodie. This is the… remember the Come and See World Tour shirt? You can still get that; it's a great shirt, but now we have it in zip… zip-up… PTY form. So the Come and See World Tour, it's just… it's just a fun thing; it shows Jesus and the disciples and shows the different countries and cities that they visited, but uh… got the three fish, but the zip-up just looks… I'm going to… in fact, I'm going to go put it on right now because it's super comfy and it's cool-looking… not maybe how I'm putting it on, but anyone… no one's going to help me. All right, good. All right, so yeah, see? It's already a warm Christmas hug. All right. Then we've got the uh… mustard-colored *Against the Current*. Now, look, I know that this isn't for everybody; I'm going to say it right off the bat. I don't necessarily look good in this color, so I'm not going to necessarily put it on… well, not even necessarily; I'm just not going to put it on. But other people look cool in it, like Janine. Janine, come on in, show… see? Oh, look, see? It does look good on some people. So uh… just not on everybody. I… I'm aware of that, but at Chosen Con when we debuted this, just a lot of people really loving it. I would say if you are a parent or a grandparent of Gen Z, for example, this got like… people that are under the age of, you know, 25 or so… a lot of good response from that. So uh… check it out. Uh, we got the hoodie and the shirt. I'm gonna hand this to you, Durban or Jalene… fine, the shirt. So the *Against the Current* hoodie uh… and shirt, we've got it in… we've had it in black, uh… we've had it in red; limited edition. These are only available—the mustard is only available until Christmas—so uh… you'll want to get that now. So a couple other things… this is one of my… not… I… I… I want to say favorite, not because I would wear it, but because the… the response to this has been so strong, and it really is a beautiful product. So Jalene's going to have to get ready here to come up again. So this is what I'm opening now is… little… little Chosen container; it's got uh… jewelry inside, and it says *The Chosen* uh… and it's with… along with the Starfish Project. Now, I'm gonna explain that in just a second, but there's this little… little booklet in here, and then this little… little thing that explains what I'm talking about. So the women who make this jewelry, who put it together for you—it's actually done individually; each one is handcrafted; not like it's not like they, you know, literally smelt the metal or anything like that, or the gold or the silver—but they put this together and packaged it for you, and these are women who have been rescued from sex trafficking. And so the Starfish Project says, "Wear hope, give hope." The women in the Starfish program um… have suffered deeply and can relate profoundly to Mary Magdalene in *The Chosen*, and like her, they're finding their past reversed… their pasts reversed and personhood restored. Wear this necklace to celebrate and support these women and the one who redeems us, calls us by name, chooses us as his own. Thank you for giving hope. So this necklace… come, show it, Jalene. You're wearing it right now? Yes. Isn't it beautiful? So it says um… "Called by name" on one side because it's like a… it's like a rectangle thing; "Called by name," "I am His," and it's got the three fish uh… little symbol, and then on the… on the… on the fourth uh… side it says "Redeemed." So this is really, really cool. We've got it in both gold and silver. Yes. And then we've got the uh… the… the uh… the bracelet… one more time, uh… Jalene. So you've got gold and silver of this as well. So this is… it's got white… and they're like in the shape of like fish fins, right? And they're all going… going in this direction, and you've got one of them that is teal. And so what was really important to me was that we've been… you… you've been asking for uh… jewelry for a long time, and I just… I was like, "I want to make sure that if and when we do something, it really means something," right? All of our gifts are intended to mean something, either to you personally or to someone who might be seeing what you're wearing or what you've got on. And so uh… that was really important to me, and so it took us some time to really hone that in. But the bracelet with the teal fish mixed in with the uh… the white fish, and then that really beautiful message on that necklace, it's uh… really, really cool, and it goes to uh… support these women. And so the one… one of the things that Bob told me is that because you have already been purchasing this jewelry at such a high rate that the company uh… hired five new women and res… who were… who have been rescued out of that. So that's just so cool. So it's already making an impact. So uh… thank you so much for that; that really means a lot. Um… where is the painting? Oh, it's at the bottom; I'll get to that later. So uh… because it's at the bottom of all the stuff, so we'll get to that next. So all right, the *Cast Your Nets* card game. All right. So we debuted this at Chosen Con as well, and Daryl actually led a big group of people in playing it. Here's what I'm going to tell you: so first of all, uh… here's what it says on the… on the back: "Who will catch the most fish? Gather your friends and family to find out. Avoid the Roman guards as you pull your fish from the Sea of Galilee in this new card game inspired by the hit TV show—that's us, *The Chosen*—you won't get wet, but it will be a wild time of miraculous fun." It's got uh… 38 action cards; they guide players through first-century twists of fate and faith. So this is a really cool game. Now, I'm gonna… I'm gonna be honest with you, okay? This is not the easiest game to figure out right off the bat; it actually is a bit of a challenge. And so we found this out as… as people have been testing it, is that it takes a bit—not too long—but it takes a bit to kind of figure the game out. That's the… that's the quote-unquote challenging news. The great news is… is… is that once people did figure it out—and it didn't take too long—but it's not just one of those like simple Go Fish type games, okay? This is actually requires a little bit of brainpower, and it is actually quite engaging. And so with your family, you're going to figure this out together, but you're also going to be very engaged as you play the game. Once they figured it out, it became our number one selling item at Chosen Con. Is that accurate? Yes. Yeah, yes, Bob. I just want to make sure, but yes, uh… it is… was the number one selling item; people loved it. And so once you figure it out, it is a very engaging game, and I actually love that. I prefer the fact that it requires a little bit of brainpower because then once you figure it out, it actually is a game you're going to want to play more than once, and uh… it's a game that actually can be impactful and not just like, "Oh, yay! I said Go Fish, and I got what I wanted, and the game's over." So like all of our products, this is actually really engaging, and you will enjoy it once you figure it out, I promise. All right, here is our new painting… is it upside down? Sorry. So uh… you know how we've done already the um… what are the names of our previous paintings? So the first one was *You Are Mine*; that was the painting of Jesus… in fact, it's behind me… no, it's not; it's behind me, but you can't see it. Uh… the *You Are Mine* painting where uh… uh… Jesus is holding Mary Magdalene, and then we got the painting of Jesus and Peter and their hands reaching for each other underwater, and this is the one um… of… of course, Veronica, the bleeding woman reaching for the hem of Jesus's garment. And the reason that I love these… this painting along with our other ones is because again, it's not about having our… I… I've always said, "I don't want faces; I don't want our cast… our actors to be on people's walls around the country." Uh… it's meant to… to reflect something, and this is obviously has a much deeper meaning. And so I'll just read this to you very quickly on the back; uh… it says it's a uh… Mark 5:34, and uh… mentions on the back here, right… um… it talks about as the woman reached out to touch Jesus's robe, she was overwhelmed by 12 years of being unclean. This is Mark 25… she extended her hand, whispering, "One thread, just a fringe," her heart yearning for healing and renewal. As she touches His Garment, she is instantly healed; physical pain lifted; she was clean. That's the name of the painting. Uh… this is the medium size; we've got a large and a… and a small size as well. But again, like all of our gifts, something intended to be much deeper meaning… that much deeper meaning than just "It's a Chosen product," right? Okay, so um… what else we've got here, and then we will move on. Bob's raising his hand. Yes, Bob. One more thing to tell about all of our art now. Yes. Put their phone up to the lower right corner; they get to see the scene. Oh, my goodness! I didn't know that. All right. So if you put your phone up to the lower right-hand corner of the painting… or the back of the painting… you don't have to do it like take a picture of it; you just put your phone up to it; you just put your phone up to the lower right-hand corner of the painting, and this is moving forward for all of our paintings if you purchase them. You can see the scene that uh… that this moment is from. So that's really cool. So especially for visitors, a great way to introduce them to *The Chosen*. Also, Liz Lemon is the one who paints these for us; extraordinary artist, uh… world-renowned, and uh… she did it again; it's so cool. *The Chosen Adventure Kit*. Hopefully you've seen this uh… before; Amanda and I did a video about this, but this is uh… it says, "Here comes real trouble." This is, of course, comes from *The Chosen Adventures* animated project that we have already been developing and producing; is coming out early next year uh… or at some point next year; I'm not exactly sure, but it's got so many cool items in it, activities for you to do with your family. I'm not going to go through the whole thing again; you can see the video on our social media pages, but uh… *The Chosen Adventure Kit* is fantastic; it's perfect for Christmas because you can pull it out, and you can actually start engaging with your kids or grandkids uh… or gather family together while you're already together for Christmas or for Thanksgiving. So *Chosen Adventures Kit*, make sure you check that out. A couple more things, and then we uh… we'll move on. The *Cho Christmas with The Chosen: Oh Holy Night*, the DVD and Blu-ray available at thechosen.gifts.com; it's in Mardell; it's in Hobby Lobby; it's in Walmart, but this is the Christmas special. And if you remember the Christmas special, we took kind of highlights from the first two Christmas specials that we did and put them together. And so you've got the shepherd and the messengers combined into one narrative. Um… you've got uh… let's see… all the extra content… I'm looking at this, but you… the biggest thing is you've got Andrea and uh… Matteo Belli singing "Oh Holy Night"—unbelievable! So we've got the music video included in this. So that's the DVD and Blu-ray, and then uh… this is one of Durban's favorite new uh… items. Yes. Um… this is the… what… called a uh… steelbook… the steelbook edition, right? So this is like… you can't feel this obviously because you're watching me on video, but like… it opens up; it's got four uh… discs, and this has like a special edition with a really, really cool container. Hopefully you can even hear it as I close it. And yeah… and then it's got like embossed in it or not… or like embedded is… is the three fish… you… I don't know if you can see it… yeah, you can kind of see it in the light. Yeah, there you go. That's kind of cool, right? Um… and so this is what you'll see… but you… but when you order it or when either at our uh… at the website or on… at Walmart um… it's got all… that's in it, then you can remove it, and it's going to have… we were calling these like trading cards, or it's like a… it's like a postcard-size thing… photo… yeah, it's a… it's a photo. These are so cool. Okay, this is… this one's Judas; I'm not… not sure why we chose this one to feature, but uh… there's how many of these? 11? Yeah, there's 11 of these cards with extraordinary artwork that illustrate the person. And so you can collect these. Now, I… I don't expect you to buy 11 of uh… of these just to have all 11, but you can trade; maybe you've given some of these as gifts, and… and uh… either way uh… there's… you're going to… you know, it's going to kind of be a grab bag to see which one you get uh… when you order or uh… purchase at Walmart one of these uh… steelbook edition DV… Blu-rays; it's only on Blu-ray, but it's so cool. I'm telling you, uh… the container is cool, and season four, I think, is cool too. All right, I'm going to close uh… our gifts portion with this. Again, I'm giving you a lot, but I think it's cool, and I think it's uh… gives you an early… gives you an advantage in your Christmas shopping. Look at these two books. So this is uh… the young kids' version of uh… the… the Christmas story that we've done, and then uh… this is from episode three of season one; this one's called *Come and See Jesus*. Um… and this is… look, it's got… this is for like, you know, your… your uh… what do you call? Pre-K; like this is from like ages two to seven, right? But uh… it's a little picture book, and um… you know, Joshua and Abigail were friends; Abigail talked a lot; Joshua did not. One day, Abigail met a special person who made special things, right? So it's like… this is like perfect for your little ones, and uh… so we're really excited to kind of be branching out and getting more… ages engaged with *The Chosen* and with the stories of Jesus. So all of that at thechosen.gifts.com; for the next 52 hours, free shipping! Free shipping! Yes, for the next 52 hours on everything in the store. So you're not going to want to miss this; go check it out right now. All right, uh… let me see here; what do we have next? Oh, okay. It is Christmas pageant time. So uh… in just a little bit, I'm… we're going to get into the Ask Me Anything; I've got so much to talk to you about, uh… and your questions have already been coming in, but uh… what I would love to do is… I'm going to bring out uh… not here physically… I got a chance to have a chat with Pete Holmes, legendary stand-up comic, a great actor; did a great job in *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever*. And so I had a chance to talk with him a few days ago when I was in Los Angeles, and so I'm going to show you our conversation about uh… *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever*. But before that, I'm going to show you a scene from *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever*. Lion's Gate, our studio, has agreed to let me show this to you. This is a moment from about two-thirds of the way into the movie. So let me set the stage here real quick. As you hopefully know by now, *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever* is a movie that I've been wanting to make for 20 years. When my wife first brought the book home—it's a classic book; it's been around for a long time—she brought the book home uh… and we read it to our kids, and I was laughing right away; I was moved right away, and by the end of the book, I was crying so hard I couldn't even read it; I had to hand it to Amanda; she then was reading it, and then she starts crying, and so I'd take it back. So we would basically take turns reading the book while the other person was recovering. But I'm telling you, this story is so beautiful; it's so heartwarming; it's funny; it's a mainstream Christmas classic with the message of Christ explicitly delivered. The message of the birth of Christ is front and center in this story, but yet because the book is so great, the story is so great, the acting—I hope you will agree—is great. But this movie is coming out all across the country November 8th. So put that in your calendars; Friday, November 8th is when this movie launches in theaters everywhere. But before then—November 2nd—so it's almost a week before—you get a chance to see it early, and you can watch it, and there's some extra content that I'm going to tell… tell you about. So the scene you're about to see is taking place about two-thirds of the way into the movie, okay? So the Herdmans—the worst kids in the history of the world, the kids that everyone hates and doesn't want to be part of their church—have taken over the Christmas pageant. They've bullied the other kids into taking over the roles, but in the process of doing so, they are actually learning more about the Christmas story, and they're asking all these questions, and they're… and they think uh… the… the people in the town and in the church think that they're ruining the pageant. And so shortly before—actually, the night before—the performance of the Christmas pageant, things have gone wrong, and we don't know what's going to happen. And this is uh… Judy Greer as Grace; this is the mom who volunteered to direct the pageant and thought she could make it work, and her daughter Beth, who has been experiencing the middle of this crisis since the Herdmans took it over, have a chat about how things are going, and I think you're going to really appreciate uh… the… the… the themes and message of this scene. This gives you a taste of *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever*; let's check it out right now. "I just thought I could do it somehow, and it could be the best one ever, even with the Herdmans." "It's still too late to replace them. I don't think that'd be right, honey." "I also don't think it's right the way those women talk about the Herdmans. Don't forget the whole point of the story is that Jesus was born for the Herdmans as much as he was for us. We'd be missing the point of all of it if I turn them away." "But what if they ruin it?" "Bore you? They probably will. It's not about me. You're doing a great job, Mom. Let's see what happens tomorrow night first." "Quit… you're just… quit messing… give a…" "Okay, no, I'm just kidding." "Hello?" "Uh… no, I knew we were on camera. I'm not actually that mean to Jan." Right. Right, Jalene. Yes. Yeah, see how confidently she said yes. Uh… Jalene and Cheyenne… Cheyenne's here; she runs our social media teams and all of that; she's one of our gurus. They begged me to wear the uh… the mustard hoodie; they said it looks so fantastic; you must wear it, right? You begged… Begg… begged. Absolutely. I don't know how mustard looks on me; it's debatable. You can debate about it in the comments, but it is a really cool hoodie, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Okay, so I want to show you real quick here too, a conversation that I had with Pete Holmes, who plays the dad in *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever*. He talks a little bit about the movie, and then right after that is a conversation with Lauren Graham—yes, the Lauren Graham from *Parenthood* and *Gilmore Girls*—she's going to be talking about the film as well. Won't take too much of your time, but uh… I do think that uh… you're going to really appreciate this film, and I think you're going to love hearing from them. So let's check that out right now. "Pete, you and I met on *Christmas Pageant*; we'll get into that in just a second, but tell me… tell you uh… a little bit about what you do; what… what would you say is your number one thing? I mean, I discovered you doing Batman… your Batman bits for… was it CollegeHumor? It was for CollegeHumor. Yeah, genius! Absolutely. You got obsessed…" "I spent an entire night just binging all of your Batman…" "Really appreciate that. Uh… so look up Pete Holmes Batman if uh… if you can. Uh… but would you say stand-up is your… is your primary passion?" "Well, at the risk of sounding a little bit uh… sort of full of myself—meaning I've given this some thought—I like the title comedian. Anything that's comedy, I like to do, and that's not even entirely true. I wrote a book that wasn't altogether funny; it wasn't funny throughout, and I've done some dramatic work as well. But I like the word comedian, meaning if it's funny, I like to do it; that would cover Batman, that would cover stand-up, that would cover acting, that would cover writing, that sort of stuff." "So Pete Holmes, period. Comedian. Comedian all lowercase too, so it looks like I'm kind of like casual about it." "So uh… I sent you the script for *The Best Christmas Pageant Ever* along with a letter where I was like, 'You're the guy that I really want for this role.' Um… I had my eye on you; you had done a TV show called *Crashing* back in the day, so I knew you had acting chops, and I've always been a big fan of stand-up comics as actors." "Yeah. Uh… because you have a sense of timing." "I agree. And… and I think it also… I don't just mean me; I agree because we cast a lot of comics on that show, and I was like, 'It's fun to watch how they participate with reality.'" "So I sent you the letter, sent you the script. Um… how often does that happen to you where… where someone specifically says, 'I…' other than your probably your comic friends… yeah… who might say, 'I got this thing that I think you should do; you'd be good for it,' but how often do you get like a script and a letter from a director specifically saying, 'I have you in mind for this role'?" "Well, not… not that often. It's… it's definitely a special occasion. I… I'm… I'm fortunate to say it happens maybe… let's say once a year, but not in the way you did it, which was heartfelt and sincere. You'll get it, and you'll kind of have to translate your agents' kind of Hollywood babble, and they'll be like, 'They love you, and… and they want you for it.' I hear that all… all the time, and then nothing ever happens, and you're just like, 'Oh, yeah,' you know, Hollywood is… is a perpetual motion machine, and nothing is really lost by making me think that this might happen; it kind of gets me excited, but then it often goes away. So when… even when this came in, even though you sent a note, there's always a part of you that's like, 'I'll believe it when I'm on set,' and Eric Stoltz and *Back to the Future*…" "I'll believe it when we're wrapped." "And I'm not making fun of Eric Stoltz." "Yeah, he was… he was originally Marty McFly in *Back to the Future*…" "But um… yeah, it was really nice to get the script, and it was really nice to have the direct note from you, and then later you sent me a video, and I was like, 'Oh, wow, this guy really means it.'" "Yeah." "And that was really refreshing. And then I told you when I read the script, I was not familiar with the book, although so many friends have come out of the woodwork—literally dozens of friends—being like, 'That

Have that happen, you know, twice. Parenthood isn't maybe quite as, hasn't reached quite the size of the audience as Gilmore Girls, but has such an important role in so many people's lives. It was huge for my wife and me; we love that show.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever came to you earlier this year, or uh, near the end of last year. I sent you the script and wrote a letter just saying how great you were, um, and uh, why for me the kind of comedy and emotion that you bring, kind of that tightrope you walk so well on most of the things that I've seen you do, it's like it's kind of dramy in many ways, and that's what I was hoping for with this movie.

Uh, what about this script made you go, “this works for me?” Well, it's all the things we're talking about, isn't it? It's like I'm drawn to something that has comedy and drama in it. I am drawn to something that has a timelessness, which I think this does, and I just love, I love Christmas so much. And to be a part of something that I think will be a very positive bonding family Christmas experience for people is like, I, I want to be part of that. And I love both Judy and Pete, and um, you know, I, it was, I mean, my time there was short because of the role, but I liked, you know, that it's I get to tell the story, and the, and the, I didn't know the book before we did this, but now I do, and it's just like a beautiful message, and an upbeat kind of, um, you know, world to be in, which I always like.

Yeah, from the beginning, I mean, the movie starts with your voice. And what's interesting is when I read the book 20 years ago to my kids, and I fell completely in love with it, and I've been trying to make it for so long. Uh, when it finally came time for that role of the narrator, who then we see at the very end—to not try to give too much away—but I, that's such a vital role, and I think, you know, makes me think of A Christmas Story in the way that the very presence of a narrator gives you a sense of history, or they're telling it from their point of view, and and that feels nostalgic, just, you know, just as an element, and and I think that's really what you're going for, which I think was really successful.

Yeah, yeah. So when you, and and we'll, we'll uh, we'll get going here in just a second, but when you got a chance to watch it before you recorded it, um, I remember you said you enjoyed it. I mean, as long as assuming you were telling the truth, you much you enjoyed what you'd seen, but that you, for some reason, the link had cut off in the last like 10 minutes or so, so you weren't able to actually see the big climax. And I remember when we were recording it, and you said, “Well, let me watch, let me watch the next few minutes first before I do the narration,” and uh, it was emotional. I, it seemed like you were really appreciating the moment for sure. And also just seeing it on a big screen and not on a computer, which I will also advocate, you know, people to go to the theater and and really have that, you know, family kind of bonding experience. But it is very emotional, and I think that's what any kind of Christmas story has to it is, you know, yes, it's about all the fun and gathering and, um, you know, commerce in some ways, but it really, you know, the movie just has a beautiful message to it, and it is really moving and funny, and you know, that's all, all the things I want out of a Christmas movie and out of really any movie.

Yes, yes. Well, thank you for doing this, and uh, thank you for all the comments you've been making publicly about how I'm your favorite director you've ever worked with. Oh yes, I, yeah, no, um, but no, really a treat. And as Amanda shared with you uh, through tears when we were finally in person, um, having you join this project and bring what you bring to it really helped elevate it, and it really is a privilege to have you on board, so thank you so much for, for… well, and thank you. I, I, I do think you're just a really special director and and person, and I think, you know, the sort of you bring that to the character of your work, and that's what we're talking about is like you just hope to share something positive and um, so you're, so the rumors are true, and you are one of the, one of the up there in the conversation. Exactly. But thank you so much. All right, uh, Lauren, appreciate it. Get back to uh, to work. I'm sure there's a a TV show that wants your time, so thanks, thanks for uh, for taking a break to talk with us. It really means a lot. Thank you so much. Right.

Wasn't that fun? I think it's fun. I think this movie, I think, I think this is really… I know it's not The Chosen, and I know, I know this is a Chosen live stream, but it is pointing people towards the birth of Christ, and uh, there's nothing more chosen than that. So uh, one little last thing I want to show you before we move on away from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is that on November 2nd, so that's a Saturday, so that's in just a few days, that's six days away, I want you to put this down in your calendar if you don't want to wait until November 8th. And if you do want to get a sneak peek of The Chosen season five, then you're going to want to go to these early access screenings that are available in most theaters around the country on Saturday, November 2nd. So these are only for these early screenings only on November 2 will you get the scene from season 5. It's actually the Last Supper scene. In fact, I teased it a little bit on my social media, and hopefully you got a little glimpse of that, but this is a moment from the Last Supper, and so the only way you're going to see this scene is if you show up on November 2nd. After that, it won't be available until season 5 comes out. So there's an excerpt from The Last Supper that I show you in the early access screenings. We also show you some behind the scenes of Blake Shelton, yes, the Blake Shelton who recorded a new version of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" just for this movie because he is a fan of The Chosen and he is a fan of Christmas and now he is a fan of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and he did an original version. I'm so excited about this; it's such a great song. You can go see it, you can go hear it on Spotify and Apple Music and all that kind of stuff, and uh, but we're going to show you behind the scenes of that. We got some extra uh, content as well. So just watch this quick 25-second glimpse of the kinds of things you'll see that are extra in addition to the movie if you go get your tickets right now uh, for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Check us out. This is a Christmas movie that we are very proud of and eager for you to see. And so because you're here early, you got a chance to see some extra stuff that no one else is going to see [Music]. So there's so many reasons for you to see it early besides what I just showed you. And in fact, I, I, I think this is still the Lions Gate agreed to give a certain amount of uh, buy one, get one free tickets available. So if you do, uh, I, I'm not sure if it's still like if you can still get it because there's a limited number, but you can try. So either just go to your local theater and look up The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and try to get tickets for it through there, or you can go to atomtickets.com, atom uh, tickets.com, atomtickets.com. And if you buy one for yourself, you get a free ticket for your kid, so offspring of any age. So uh, that's pretty cool too. So if you're… I don't know, again, I don't know how many are left because there's only a certain number of those free tickets left, but uh, you can go check it out, atomtickets.com, if you want to. The thing is you have to get an account and all that stuff, so you might not want to go through that rigamarole, but if you do want to save money on The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, November 2nd, you can do that. All right, that's enough about that movie. Uh, I'm very excited about it. Thank you so much for your patience, but I do think you're going to like it. All right, ask me anything. This is the part of the live stream I'm actually looking forward to this because some of the questions that have come in over the last few weeks uh, I'm really excited to talk to you about. So you can continue to ask questions in the chat. We'll see if I can get to them, but as you know, in the chat, sometimes it can get pretty crazy, and there's a lot to sort through, so we'll try to get to your questions in the chat. If I'm not able to get to them on the air, so uh, Bob Thomas in the Chosen fan club asks, “What happened to ‘when we’re done with season seven, I’m going to sleep for a year’?” So he’s responding to the fact that I’m wearing a 52 Studios hat, 52 Studios shirt, and we announced that we’re developing multiple shows. We’ve got an animated show that’s coming out next year that we’ve already been working on. We’ve got uh, Joseph that we’re developing that might come between, hopefully is coming between seasons six and seven uh, of The Chosen. Uh, I am intending to do the book of Moses, which will be my next project after The Chosen mothership, uh, and then after that, the book of Acts. Uh, that we’re currently titling that show The Way. The Chosen got a Bear Grylls uh, uh, show that uh, has already been in production, and it’s coming out next year as well. So when he asks what happened to you uh, taking a nap, so here’s the fact, here’s the, here’s the thing that’s still happening. So when I am done filming season seven of The Chosen, I am actually taking a break from Chosen projects. So there will be kind of a gap now in between that. During that gap, there will be other projects that are coming out; I’m just not doing them myself, right? So, for example, Joseph, which hopefully is coming out between season six and seven, I’m not actually going to be directing that myself. We’ve brought on a writer named Craig Wright who’s fantastic. Uh, he’s been working on the scripts along with our team, Ryan, Tyler, and myself, who make up what we call the Brain Trust of The Chosen. And so we’re, of course, going to be supervising and involved in every project, regardless of whether we are doing the writing ourselves, but we’re going to be involved to make sure that it is Chosen-esque, that it fits our uh, our creative standards, our quality standards, and of course, biblical standards. So we’re going to make sure that all of our projects are great, but I won’t be doing all of them myself. So I will be taking a break from The Chosen uh, after I’m done with season seven, but then I will come back right into it uh, better than ever, I assume, and hope to go into our Moses show and then uh, and then after that I’ll be doing, along with Ryan and Tyler as writers, I will be doing uh, the book of Acts show. That’s my intention now; things may change between now and then, but that’s why, that’s what we’re doing. Uh, before I get into the rest of your questions, I do want to mention again, stick around for the whole live stream because I will be giving you the release date of season five at the end of these questions, and I will also be uh, sharing with you a really cool video, so don’t go anywhere. All right.

Kristen in our Chosen Insiders group on Facebook asks, “Will the actors playing the disciples in The Chosen replay their roles in the book of Acts show?” Good question. Now, here’s the honest answer: I don’t actually know for sure because, you know, there may be some actors who don’t want to do more than seven seasons of one character, you know, I mean? So we’re going to be, we’re going to be figuring all that out over the next few years. Uh, we hope so, obviously. I love, I love the cast, and I want to bring back as many as possible, um, but, but you never know. Some people take on new jobs and new opportunities artistically speaking; not everyone wants to do the same role for so long. So we’ll see, um, and uh, the ones who come back, of course, want to come back; we’ll, we’ll do something, but we haven’t even decided yet exactly who we’re going to be focusing most on. Obviously, we can’t focus on 15 people or 20 people equally, but we’ve been developing some of the storylines already, just some of my general ideas, um, but yeah, hopefully, um, we’ll be able to work it out to get as many people as possible, but we just don’t know for sure.

Jonathan in the Chosen Insiders page asks, “What is your favorite Bible verse or passage, the one you turn to most, and how is editing for season five going?” All right, well, that’s a two-part question; you’ve kind of cheated a little bit, but let’s see. Um, my favorite Bible verse is Psalm 34:5, and it says, “Those who look to him are blameless; their faces shall not be ashamed.” Now, there’s different, you know, I might, I might be misquoting certain translations, but that’s the gist of it. What I love about that verse, Psalm 34:5, is that it says when you look your face towards Jesus, when you turn your face towards Jesus, um, you will not be ashamed; you will experience joy, uh, and, and so when you are focused on him, and when you are living on the uh, on the eternal perspective, and you are living a life where the Holy Spirit is truly uh, in, in concert with you, um, you are blameless and unashamed. And those times that we sin are times when we are not looking into the face of Jesus. And so uh, that’s what I, I, I love about that verse; it’s a good reminder at all times. Editing for season five is going well in the fact that I am actually completed; I have completed what we call picture lock, which means which means I and the editors, John and Adam, we have finished our uh, the editing of the picture of season five. All eight episodes took me a couple months, of course; took them even longer because they’re editing while I’m filming season five; they’re getting, they’re, they’re doing their first cut of it, and then I get in there and do my version. And so we’ve been working on this for a long time; we just completed it a few days ago. Now, of course, the composers are working on the score based on our picture, the visual effects are working on all the stuff that’s blue-screened or that is uh, where, where we need to uh, remove certain things in the background or whatever; they’re hard at work on that; that takes a long time. A color correction so that it looks as bright or as dark or as uh, beautiful as as it needs to look; our cinematographer is actively working on that right now. And then also the audio correction and audio sweetening, so where we add in background noise and we add in what’s called Foley, where you add on all the sound effects, and where the actors come back into the studio for anything that maybe we need to change or tweak, or lines that you couldn’t understand very well, or maybe the audio on that day was poor for whatever reason; uh, so that’s called additional dialogue recording, ADR. And so we’re working on that, so we won’t be done with the seasons until uh, early next year. With, we won’t be done with all of the work on it, and then this is why the uh, release date of season five is going to be a little later uh, than what we normally do because of my work being done is because we want, we, we’re translating it into multiple languages at once, and that takes a little bit of time, and so we want to release it at the same time in as many countries as we can. So hopefully you appreciate that. That in the past we’ve just released it to the states as soon as it’s ready, but uh, the other countries, some of the other countries around the world are going, “Well, why can’t we watch it right now?” And it’s, “Well, because we have takes time to translate the language and dub it and all that stuff.” So we’re going to try to get increasingly better at releasing in as many countries at the same time as possible. So thanks for your patience in that.

Kelvin on Facebook says, “Way back in season one, during a live stream, I had noticed that Abigail’s mother in episode three worked at the salon with Mary in episode two and appeared at Zeb’s house in episode six. You said these weren’t all the same character despite being the same actress, and you said you’d explain why at a later point. Well, it’s later.” All right. Well, here’s what’s interesting. Uh, first of all, she’s asking about Abby, Abby uh, is represented in this little Come and See uh, kids book and also is the main character of The Chosen Adventures. So uh, Kelvin, I love you, but you are incorrect. When uh, in the following you said they weren’t all the same character despite being the same actress; those two are not the same actors; they are sisters. So Abigail’s mom in episode three, she actually references some of the uh, she, when, when she’s talking to Abby at around the dinner table, she’s actually referencing the market, and she talks about the market. Well, her sister works at the market. So those are two different actresses and two different characters. I know they look very, very similar, but they are not actually the same. And if you watch clear, if you watch it again, if you go back and look at episode two and look at episode three, you will see, okay, I can tell they’re not actually the same person. In episode six, Abby’s parents show up again, her dad and her mom, and that is episode three, the, well, that’s episode six that they show up, but it’s, it’s from Abby’s mom who’s in episode three. Make sense? So two different actresses; they are sisters; one of them is the mom of Abigail; one of them works with Mary Magdalene at the salon. Isn’t that cool? Little bit of insider information. Uh, per, I want to make sure I’m seeing this correctly, perlene, perlene or p-i-p-e-a-r-l-a-n-e, sorry, perlene, if I’m mispronouncing your name, from Facebook, uh, she asked, “What challenges are you coming up against in, in…” I gotta make these uh… gonna make… because I’m reading, they put this up on a teleprompter for me, and I’m just not seeing it very clearly, so I’m going to make it a little bigger here. Okay. “What challenges are you coming up against in setting these new shows in motion, for example, creative blocks, logistics, etc., and how can we pray in this regard?” That is such a great question, and thank you for that. So when you pray for us, the first thing I always say is you could pray for our families. Um, I would say that over the last five years as the show has grown and been quote-unquote successful in whatever the world measures that, but also successful uh, spiritually, um, it’s been the hardest five years of my life, hardest five years of my family life without a close second. This last year has been the hardest year of uh, my family’s life, and I know that’s true for a lot of people involved in The Chosen. So whether it’s chronic illness, like in the case of my family, or uh, emotional issues or financial issues or whatever, it just never stops. Once you sign on to work on The Chosen, your life is probably going to get more difficult, not less. And so we all know why that is. So you can always pray for that. The challenges specifically, I wouldn’t say creative blocks, but it is, we are so passionate about making sure that every show that we do is great and make sure that it lives up to the standards of the Jesus story or the God story, The Bible story, uh, and, and so whatever it is, we, it just takes time, and we just really want to get it right. And so doing multiple projects, uh, we don’t want to ever spread ourselves too thin; we want to make sure that we are uh, focusing on everyone properly. And so that just, that does tax our company; it taxes our team, and it taxes our team, and then it also means we just have to build as a company. And the bigger our company gets, so 52 Studios right now has over 70 full-time employees, 70 year-round employees who work in social media, who work in marketing, who work in our uh, international efforts, who work in our legal department, our HR department; it is a huge, huge year-long, year-round, more for us to do and more for us to figure out; we have to try to get it translated and um, replicated overseas. So we have social media teams in other countries that Cheyenne, who’s with me uh, today, uh, she’s got to keep track of and oversee and help lead multiple teams uh, in Poland and Brazil and uh, what I, you know, Germany and Italy and all this stuff. And, and so it is a big deal. And so we just, you know, pray that we don’t lose um, our, our core, who we are; we don’t get spread too thin; that financially and spiritually that we’re maintain, that we’re sustainable. So that’s going to be, that’s always really important. So you can pray for us in that regard, but we are excited about each of these projects; we chose them for a specific reason uh, because they do fulfill our mission, and so we’re really excited about it. So, and I think you will be too.

David in the, on, on Facebook says, “I’ve been wondering this for a while now; your creative mind is constantly cranking through options; I doubt you’re totally happy with every scene 100% in hindsight; something gnaws at you; ‘What if we did X? What if we, what if we set it up like Y?’ What scene would that be, and I’d love to hear what a different take would be.” Okay, so there are a couple of scenes that I won’t specify where a performance just wasn’t quite what I’d hoped it would be, or I couldn’t quite get uh, an actor to where it, you know, where I wanted, or um, where our cinematography… I mean, in every, every one of our departments will acknowledge this that I mean my DP, uh, my cinematographer AIS will say, “I wish I could had another crack at that scene.” And so sometimes, whether it’s because of time or weather or financial pressures or whatever it was, we just couldn’t get it exactly where we wanted it. And uh, so I won’t specify which scenes those are, but I will say uh, when people do ask, “Do you regret anything?” uh, there’s one scene that always comes to mind or one episode that comes to mind that I love; it’s one of my favorite episodes we’ve ever done, and it is episode three of season four for uh, the, the r, the death of Rama. I don’t regret that decision at all; I’m, I’m very proud of it; I’m very proud of that scene; it’s one of my favorite scenes we’ve ever done, one of my favorite episodes we’ve ever done. The only regret that I have, and I don’t know what else I would do about this because it’s part of the the storyline and how, what how one thing led to another, part of me wishes that I would have done the healing of the blind man in the, in, in the previous episode so that that could have gotten the time and attention that it deserves because I love that scene, and I love that moment in scripture where he says, uh, “Whether or not he is a prophet, I do not know; one thing I do know: I was blind, and now I see.” And that was a beautiful moment, but then when people talk about that episode, they certainly don’t talk about that; they talk about the Thomas and Rama stuff. So I do wish I would have maybe approached that in a different way to give that scene as much as a much as it could have gotten.

Darlin asks, “What is the reason you put Moses before Acts?” Good question. So because I, I heard from some people, I’ve seen these comments on social media; some have said, “Oh, well, I’m so eager to see Acts, so you know, I don’t want to have to wait for that, for the continuation of the story.” Couple reasons for that: number one, just simply creative energy. Um, I’m going to speak for the actors and for myself; when you’re doing the same people and the same storylines and the same arc for so long, you, you need a break. And so uh, just the thought of finishing the seven seasons of the mothership show and then going right into the the continuation of that same story, I can promise you that there are many of our actors who are like, “I need, I need a break from this character for a bit; I need to try something different.” I know that was helpful for me when I did The Best Christmas Pageant Ever in between the filming of seasons four and five; uh, it was the one project I’ve ever, I would ever would have done that for because it’s a movie I’ve been pursuing for so long, but um, I needed, I needed a creative break, and I came back to The Chosen that much more engaged. And so I think just for our own purposes, and I hope you can forgive us for this and just acknowledge that this can be challenging, just doing the same person is just creatively challenging. So taking a little bit of a break from that is going to help all of us. Um, but also I think that biblically, for the purpose of this story, pausing for a moment to go back and to show how the story of Moses sets up the stories of the early church, sets up the story of Jesus, is the precursor to Jesus. Um, Moses, I’ve said this before, Moses um, you know, split the Red Sea; Jesus walked over the waters; Moses turned the water to blood; Jesus turned the water to wine. There’s so many parallels that are so cool. And so taking that break, I wouldn’t even call it a break; I would call it a a turn back to the story of Moses; I think is going to be so cool. I promise you, you will love uh, how this enhances and enriches the stories that we are telling from the New Testament. And so this is not um, I mean, I know I say kind of go back to, but this is not a step back; this is a step forward, sideways; whatever. The story of the Gospels, the story of the Bible, God’s story, is, is all happening at once. And so I can’t wait for you to see how what we do with that story, and we’ve already been developing some of it; it’s really cool. So that’s the reason why. And then when we get to the to the book of Acts uh, story, I promise you it will be even more enriched uh, and you will, I think, even appreciate it more because you’ve had a little break from it. But the, the, the book of Moses story that we’re doing is going to be cool; will be the biggest thing we’ve ever done.

Deborah asks, “I’m curious to know what Jonathan Roumie’s role might be in future 52 Productions if you guys even know.” Know that is… well, of course, the character that Jonathan Roumie plays, Jesus, uh, will no longer be physically present in future productions, but bear in mind, Jesus is present in the animated projects, so The Chosen Adventures, uh, you know, the beauty of animation is we can be doing that forever. So even if Jonathan gets into his 70s, as long as his voice is still working, he’ll still be able to play Jesus in The Chosen animated project. There’s also, if you’ve watched the mothership show, you have seen flashbacks to the Old Testament; you’ve seen flash-forwards. Do you think it’s going to be any different when we do the Moses show? Flashbacks and flash-forwards? I’m just going to leave that out there.

Kathleen asks, “With all your forthcoming projects, how do you balance family time?” Praying for your beautiful wife, Amanda, and your kids. It’s a parent that God has giving you the energy to proceed with these amazing projects. That’s true; I do have a lot of energy, and that is not me; that’s God, uh, and some ADHD thrown in there for good measure, and uh, the occasional, you know, coffee, uh, to proceed with these amazing projects. Thank you, Dallas and family; that’s very kind. Kathleen, really means a lot. I, I feel your prayers, I, and, and, and if you’re following me on social media or if you’re on my text community, uh, let’s just put that up real quick. Um, I’m blanking on the number… 31, no, shoot… Colin knows it, so he’s just going to pop that up along the bottom. Um, yeah, everyone, every, all my team has like got their phone up… Oh, you’ve got it. Perfect. Look at what I’m gonna show this… Steve has Dallas, faux Jenkins, in his contacts… 214-239-11527, 214-239-11527. You just text that number, and you will get a quick form to fill out; you don’t have to pay anything; uh, there’s nothing expected of you; all it means is that you’re going to get updates from me and behind-the-scenes info you’re not going to get anywhere else. I love to give uh, discounts on gifts that only go to my text community, uh, so, but if you follow that, sometimes I give prayer requests as well. And so uh, I do balance family time; I do take that very seriously. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I’m taking a year break before my next project is to really spend time with Amanda; my kids will at that point be in college or older, but uh, we just, we really need to take a break. But um, I already, already do balance it; we live here in Texas where we film, so that helps, but uh, I’ve just always made a really a priority over making sure that the show and the work of God doesn’t take me away from my family or from God.

Linda uh, asks, “Would you consider putting the disclaimer that is at the start of season one at the start of each season? It’s great to remind people to read the actual story in the Gospels.” It’s a good question, but I’m not going to do that, and here’s why: first of all, by the time you’ve watched future seasons, hopefully you’ve seen that disclaimer at the beginning of of uh, season one. But this is, at the end of the day, I want to remind you, it is a TV show; it is not a documentary. Uh, I don’t, I don’t feel the need or the desire every time people watch the season or an episode to kind of be taken out of the show and to be uh, reminded of certain things that are contextual. If you want to hear that kind of stuff, you can watch our live streams; you can watch our after-shows; you can watch our Bible roundtables; you can follow us on social media; we give you tons of information and tons of ability to uh, to hear more and to go deeper. But for many people, they just want to watch a TV show, and that’s perfectly fine, um, and I can tell you that it’s not like we are lacking that information about reading the the actual story in the Gospels. People who watch this show are reporting more than ever all over the world that they are reading their Bibles more than they ever have before. It is overwhelming how biblical literacy has improved and readership has increased because of The Chosen. So I know that for some of you, you’re like, “I wish that Dallas would say that and remind people.” People are reminded; people know; I promise you.

Susan asks, “With the Chosen Universe going big, do you still need crowdfunding? Please share more about how these projects will be funded.” Great question. Now, I did address some of this in my announcement at Chosen Con. We don’t actually know how all of those projects will be funded. Some of them will be funded by Come and See. So Come and See is our nonprofit uh, friends and family and partnership uh, that is uh, they finance the production of the current show, and they also finance a lot of our marketing that’s that happens uh, so they are doing that for the mothership show, and they are interested in doing more shows, of course, and or more movies because we’re going to be doing movies too, but we don’t know if that’s going to be true of every project. So we will let you know uh, when we uh, when it comes time for a project like… um, I, I just don’t know exactly, but let’s just use Book of Moses as an example. Let’s say Come and See is going to be the one financing that; I will of course let you know and say, “For full seasons of uh, the Book of Moses, uh, you’re going to need to donate to Come and See.” But there are other opportunities as well. Uh, we are currently uh, sorting through the possibilities of some of the major Hollywood streamers, uh, not, I can’t give details yet, of course, but uh, we are looking for a partner who will also potentially finance some of our projects. Now, you might be thinking, “Oh, does that mean that they’re going to take over control? Or does that mean you’re going Hollywood? Or does that mean you’re going to water down the message?” Absolutely not. That’s one of the cool things about this; they’re coming to us and saying, “We love what this show has done on our platform; we want to do more with you.” They are friends; they want this show; they want more shows to go out to the world, and they have explicitly said to us, “We have no desire to change or influence or impact any of your content other than helping it get bigger and better and out to more people.” So uh, when they fund it, that’s going to be great. I’ll be doing live streams for a particular project, and I won’t be talking about Come and See per se; maybe I will be about the translations of of the, of, of the languages or about marketing. So we’ll keep in touch with you and make sure it’s very clear on future projects, but for now, Come and See is financing uh, the current mothership show, and I’ll talk about that right at the end of the live stream

Out, it's really, really cool. And yes, we are still in touch with them. We formed some really great friendships. All of them watched Season 2; some of them have kept going. I don't know exactly if all of them have watched all four seasons, but uh, yeah, we've kept in contact with them and formed a really good relationship.

Anthony—Anthony Vincent—I've seen him a few times. He asks what's one scene for the Joseph series that you are excited about filming? Where are you looking to take this story that's different from what we've seen? Well, you know how *The Chosen* goes; we always give you more context and more backstory, and we really connect you to the people, to the authentic humanity of each of these people. So that's, of course, going to be something that maybe you haven't seen before. But I was reading the pilot episode, the first draft, and there was a scene between Jacob and Leah. So if you recall, Jacob is the father of Joseph, and he had multiple wives. Um, and that's a whole sorted tale and how that happened. We're going to touch on that a little bit, but Leah was the one that he didn't actually choose. Leah had actually fooled Jacob and caused him to work for seven years because he wanted to win Rachel, but then he gave him Leah and said you're gonna have to rework seven more years if you want Rachel. Well, what is that like? What happens? Leah probably knows that she wasn't the first choice. So there was a scene between the two of them that's just both heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. And so that was a scene that I read that I was like, "Man, this is *The Chosen*. This is *The Chosen* way. This show is going to be great."

Two more questions, and then I—then we'll get—get you out of here. Got a couple more things for you, and then we're going to go. Suzanne asks, "Are there any *Chosen* scenes you've watched that have deeply impacted your relationship with Jesus, or are you too close to the making of it to experience a leap of affection or conviction or spiritual insight? If you have been impacted, which scenes did so, and what was that like for you?" So that's a really interesting question. I would say it's the other way around, typically. The scenes of *The Chosen* come out of an insight or a conviction that Amanda or myself, or Tyler Ryan have had, and that then results in what you see. So, um, some of the things we're wrestling with, some of the things God is teaching us, some of the passages of scripture that have really changed our lives, then we pour that into the show. And so I think that's one of the reasons why the show has worked very well is because a lot—a lot of the things you're seeing in the characters when they're changing, it's because of something that we've experienced or that someone we know has experienced. So, for example, the scene between Nathaniel and God when he's under the fig tree in Season 2, Episode 2, excuse me, that came out of my own experience of being at a low point and feeling like I wasn't sure if God was with me or not. And so that scene took on a little more resonance for you, maybe, because it was coming out of a personal experience, but we married that with scripture. I will say the scene—there's a scene from Season 4 that just really hit me—was Lazarus and Jesus talking after Lazarus has been raised. And it's just the two of them talking for several minutes. Can I—are you nodding, Durban? Yeah, it's one of my favorites ever. And Lazarus is reconciling the fact that Jesus is about to suffer, and Jesus reminds him of the prophecies. Well, it says, "I am a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief," and he's like, "Those were words on a scroll, and now it's flesh and blood, and now I love you, and I don't want to see you suffer." And uh, I'll—that's just one of my—it was one of my favorite scenes to write, one of my favorite scenes to direct, one of my favorite scenes to watch because I think it's good for us to be reminded that these were human beings who were dealing with this on a personal level.

All right, last question. Maryann asks, "Where do you—where do your health tips originate? Do you personally test them before passing them on to us?" Of course, I test them. I'm giving them to you because they worked for me. Uh, great question, but uh, if you follow me on social media, you'll occasionally see what I just call #DallasTips, and uh, I'm a life hack guy. I love—I mean, I'm 49 years old. I'm trying to prepare for the 75-year-old me. I want to be doing this for a long time. I want to be giving you biblical content for a long time, and I don't want to get to be 60 years old or 70 years old or even 50 years old and uh, and—and be struggling because I hadn't been taking proper care of myself leading up to that. And I think some of the energy you see, some of the focus you see, and yes, it also allows my—allows me to uh, to have a stronger relationship with God, uh, because when we're healthy in multiple areas—mind, body, and spirit—they all work together. And I think that uh, sometimes our moods or even our—our—our ability to be focused on God can be impacted by our exhaustion or by—by our lack of health. And so I give you a lot of—a lot of little health tips and little insights that I've learned that have really worked for me, and so then I want to share them with you. So the whole reason I do *The Chosen* is to share with you what—what God is teaching me. And so uh, sometimes we just do some fun health tips for the same reason.

So all right, so thanks for those questions. Hope you've got a good insight on what's coming in the future. Um, now it's time for me to give you some info that I'm sure you've been eager for. Uh, drum roll. I'm sure we're all very excited. Season five release. I'm going to take this off for now just because I've been wear—I don't normally wear hats for longer than five minutes. And uh, anyway, Season 5, uh, we are happy to tell you that it is coming to theaters. The entire season, not exactly all at once, but you will have a chance during the theatrical release to, at some point, if you want, spend an entire day watching the entire season. So we have more details to come out with you—to you about how we're releasing all of these episodes. It is coming to you early April 2025. I don't know exactly if it's the first or second week just yet. We're working out the details, but it will be early April, so mark your calendars for that time. And we're going to give you the opportunity to watch them all at once, or you can watch them in parts. It's going to be great, but uh, it's going to release from early April all the way through the Easter season of 2025. Rejoice and be glad. Um, so I'm—gonna be hard at work on that. My team's hard at work on that, getting that to you as soon as we can. So isn't that fun? All right, we're going to close with this. Um, yeah, I like set up the whole livestream, and then it's like 40 seconds of just the—that's probably the only thing they cared about was when Season 5's coming out. Took me about 40 seconds. All right, we're going to close with this. Um, I have—I want to read to you an—an—a letter we got through Facebook from a guy named Larry, and then I want to show you a video. And uh, so—and then we'll close with that video. But uh, Larry had this to say, um, and this is—I always read these because I think even though they're—they're intended for us to read, I think you—they're—they're for you as well. Says, "Hello. I just needed to let y'all know something, and if possible to let the whole team of the show know this. And you're—the whole team." As a child and teenager, I went to church but never felt all these things others claimed to feel. That feeling of nothingness never went away. So at the age of 22, I came to the conclusion that I'm an atheist. In 2023, I discovered the show on TikTok. I believe the fishing scene with Simon in Season 1, but again, I felt nothing, or so I thought. And I want to take just a moment because we have people in this room right now in Galain and in Cheyenne and uh, and Bradley too, who are responsible for—along with their team—we have an amazing team—but who have done a lot of work on other platforms besides just the app and YouTube and Facebook, but building our TikTok presence and building our Twitter presence, some of these areas that you wouldn't ex—normally expect to see biblical content and fun content as well. So we have scenes from the show; we have behind-the-scenes stuff, but our TikTok page has exploded in the last year. And TikTok is known for either fun stuff or bite-sized things, but we have found a way, because of our amazing team, to also give impactful content. And so consider—whether if you don't have TikTok, consider getting it and checking out *The Chosen* on there. But um, these efforts that we do to expand our reach into unconventional places have an impact. And here's why. So he says, "I felt nothing when I saw this scene, but—or so I thought. On August 6, 2024—so that's not long ago—I simply wanted something new to watch, and I saw that *The Chosen* was on Amazon Prime, so I gave it a try. I'll preface with this: I'm still not sure where I stand at the moment, but I will tell you I'm currently on watching Episode 6 of Season 2. As I was on the way home from work a couple days ago, I was thinking about the scene of Jesus saying the shepherd doesn't go for the 99 sheep, he goes for the one that went astray, along with thoughts about all the terrible things I've done in recent years, and I started—and I started crying my eyes out." So that's a scene from Season 2, Episode 1, and it's possible that Larry doesn't know that story from the Bible, but he saw it in the show, and now is wrestling with it. Keep in mind, I am not an emotional person, so that was definitely strange for me. I've told my family about the show, and I've watched with my boys, age six and four. They haven't seen all of it, but we shared a good laugh while Jesus was laughing at Simon on the boat as it was—it was tipping from all the fish. Again, all these little things that you don't necessarily get when you're reading scripture, but when you see it in a show, it enhances these biblical stories, and when you go back to scripture, it makes them come to life even more. I say all of that to simply say thank you. It piqued my interest that was really never there, even as a kid, and it's gotten me—gotten me wanting to learn more, and it's created bonding moments with my kiddos. And is there anything better than that? I'm still bringing it—I'm still binging it, trying to catch up, and I'm excited. You may have successfully turned another one. Thanks again. Um, if the show wasn't free—if they hadn't seen it on social media, and he ended up finding it on Amazon Prime, of course—but because so many people are seeing it and so many people are talking about it, these kinds of things wouldn't happen. So keep that in mind when people are wondering about this show or wondering if—if—if a show can actually legitimately bring people to the Bible. It's happening.

Um, so uh, I want to close with the video, but before that, I just want to remind you really quickly because I'm going to leave while the video is playing, um, but I just want to remind you at thechosen.gifts.com for the next 52 hours—or at this point might be 51—but for the next 52 hours—hours to celebrate 52 Studios, uh, you can get free shipping on everything that you purchase at www.thechosengifts.com. So you can get this 52 Studios shirt; you can get the 52 Studios hat; you can get these books, these little kids' books that I'm telling you about—they're so cool—"Come and See Jesus" and "One Chosen Night" for your littles. Uh, you can get the uh, the jewelry, the really, really beautiful jewelry that's got the message from *The Chosen* and from the Gospels on it. Uh, you got the "Cast Your Net" card game, which, as I've said, is challenging when you're first figuring it out, but once you do it, it is really worth it because it is awesome. Um, I've also got the uh, Christmas with *The Chosen*: Holy Night DVD and Blu-ray that are available at the store or at Walmart or Hobby Lobby or Meijer. The painting—"The Clean"—it's called "Clean," with a beautiful message on the back, and if you put your phone up to it, you can see the scene that this is from. Small, medium, and large painting. We've also got the uh, Durban's favorite, the steel book Blu-ray that's available at Walmart and also at thechosengifts.com. It's got this amazing packaging and also has these little—little postcards that are so cool. And *The Chosen* Adventure Kit—something for your whole family that you can go do together. It's based on our upcoming *Chosen Adventures* show, the animated series that we're doing. So you can check that out together. Uh, and then we've got the mustard-colored "Against the Current" hoodie—zip-up hoodie—the mustard-colored "Against the Current" shirt, and the "Come and See World Tour" zip-up hoodie. This is what's on the back, and then on the front—works with the zip-up—you got the three fish. Very, very cool. So this video is something that played at ChosenCon, and this is from Come and See. Come and See are the ones who finance our show, and they finance it because you donate, and because you've donated, I want you to experience this. If you haven't donated yet, I want you to experience this because it might just make you compelled to be part of this movement and to see what is happening around the world because of what you're doing. If you can't donate, don't—I don't want you to—I just want you to experience this and appreciate this because your prayers are as responsible for this as any money that pe—people can donate as well. So uh, this is called "Everyone," and it's really beautiful. So with that, I want to remind you that it's not your job to feed the 5,000; it is only to provide the loaves and fishes. But your loaves and fishes are contributing to what you're about to watch. Thank you, and I'll see you soon. Do you remember the moment when you heard the good news for the first time? When the truth captured your heart and opened your eyes, a light illuminating the shadows, the beginning of a transformation? We are going to lose this battle for hearts and minds, especially this younger generation, if we don't act [Music] now. My fear is that this generation that is obsessed with sight and sound uh, is going to be so cluttered with stories and content that put a block between them and God. There's a story out there that gives us meaning, that gives us understanding—the story of Jesus walking on Earth. It's being told in one of the greatest ways I believe has ever been told, which is through the [Music] Chosen. Lazarus [Music] come out. All people will know that you are my disciples. Please, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me [Music] clean. I am willing [Music] be cleansed. The CC Foundation exists to share that relatable story with the world. The Come and See foundation provides that ability to compete in the marketplace and to compete in the pop culture conversation. Come and See is set up to appeal to the one, speak to the heart, and give to the [Music] world. We can appeal to the one by making sure that the production quality is as high as it can be and that it is competitive with everything else that's out there. We see so much different art portrayed visually, and if it doesn't stand down and doesn't—doesn't meet that measure of quality, it's going to seem phony. There's something about quality and authenticity that goes together to appeal to the one. You need that. *The Chosen* has done that so beautifully, and our job to Come and See is to make sure that that continues. We want to speak to the heart of the listener. We want to share that story in a way that's relatable and that's known by their heart language. How long after my visit did you feel the [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] change? I am redeemed. So this is how we get to the one. 95% of this world speaks 600 languages, and we plan on being sure that *The Chosen* is in all 600 languages over these next few years. It's never been done before. The most languages that any series has been translated and dubbed is about 50. [Music] [Music] The—lots of young people, Christian or non-Christian, they don't belong to the churches, but they watch *The Chosen*. They said, "Oh, we never understood Christ like this before." There's people in here that can't read at all. I've seen people here cry because they can't read, but they've watched the show. They can see the love that was coming through Jesus. And I know it's a television show, but it touched us so much. I decided to watch *The Chosen* and found a renewal in my faith like nothing I've ever experienced, and I felt like God was really working through the television show to reach her at that point. The way that we give to the world is by making sure that the distribution of *The Chosen* is as wide and far as it can be. There are so many people who can't pay for it. The gospel is free, so the show should be free. We want to reach a billion people with this story of the authentic Jesus. In order to do that, there can't be any barriers for someone to watch it. *The Chosen* is telling the story—the greatest story ever—in the best way ever, and we're going to reach a billion people through the power of media. We can retell the story of Jesus so that our world can have access, understand, and relate to Jesus and who he really is—not what we were—I was one way, and now I'm different. Those are in the show, but it's also what we are hearing over and over and over again. When someone told me to Come and See, I saw that I was changed. [Music] Okay, everyone. For as long as I can remember, our little town has loved Christmas, and nothing is more important than our annual Christmas pageant. The pageant is sacred. Special mention to Grace for volunteering to direct the pageant, but this year, the Herdmans changed everything. [Music] Now, the Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. [Music] Hey, give it up, Charlie. You ready for this? You going to be in your Bible play? This is going to be a real disaster. That's the spirit. Would anyone like to volunteer for Mary and Joseph? Who's Mary—baby Jesus's mom? Elmer, you usually like playing [Music] Joseph. Suppose that's that, then the Herdmans shouldn't be here. They're a poor influence. It might be the first Christmas pageant in history where Joseph and the wise men get in a fight, and Mary hightails it with the baby. Five bucks say they burn down the manger. [Music] This year, we get to be someone else, live a different life, become someone new. Why are they still here? Jesus was born for the Herdmans as much as he was for us. We'll be missing the whole point now if we turn them away. I'm not quite sure what's going to happen. Maybe that's not a bad thing, cuz Mary and Joseph weren't so sure [Music] either. She's crying—Mary's crying. It's going to be the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Today, we're going to ignore everything except blood. Come on now. That's a pageant I'd actually like to see.