Nashville, TN — Thicker Than Water, the new hit Bravo series that follows former pro basketballer and Smoothjazz / Gospel legend Ben Tankard with his blended family, smashed ratings records with it’s fifth episode airing this past Sunday.
Bravo’s newest series, “Thicker Than Water” was up from a season best 1.85 million total viewers to over 2.05 million total viewers. Additionally, it topped the key demos ratings at a whopping .9 million reports Bravo. In comparison, Bravo’s hit show Million Dollar Listing of LA averaged 1.3 million viewers with .6 million demo and peaked at 1.7 for their finale episode before being renewed for season 6 this past October.
The show is produced for Bravo by Sirens Media (of Real Housewives of New Jersey fame). Even though the show is not marketed as religious or ” faith based “, the Tankards strong Christian values leak through and the show has a massive “kingdom” following.
The Tankards who are volunteer senior Pastors, were cast by Bravo for the series because of their multiple business successes and their blended family.
Ben is the Bestselling Gospel/Jazz artist of all time with walls and walls of gold and platinum albums, as seen on the show. He performs over a hundred concerts each year which he flies to on his own airplane as a private pilot, and is in high demand as a motivational speaker for pro athletes like the NBA and NFL. Tankard states ” I’m not a preacher, I’m a reacher…..I try to speak in a manner that reaches and inspires everyone”. One of his catch phrases from episode one went viral when he stated, ” Heaven is about the B.L.I.N.G. which is a descriptive acronym for how heaven will be:
Bright-Loving-Inclusive-NeverEnding-Glory = B.L.I.N.G. “.
Jewel is a power financial planner, network marketer and motivational speaker with a community wide women’s group called The Millionairess Book Club. Her goal is to empower women to be become successful and she has recently been recruited by JET magazine to write a financial wellness column. Whew, these Tankards are NOT lazy!
With five children, two daughter-in-laws, a grandchild, and a housekeeper, there’s never a dull moment at the massive Tankard Palace and it looks like millions of viewers cannot get enough of seeing it all unfold every Sunday night. According to BravoRatings.com, Thicker Than Water ratings have doubled the ratings of other freshman reality shows on the network. In addition, they have also surpassed the best ratings of recent faith based shows like Mary Mary, Preachers of LA, The Sheards, and Run’s House, all of which did well in their own right drawing close to 1.4M viewers at best.
Since the airing of the show, Tankard says they have been approached for all sorts of deals, including a clothing lines, car dealership endorsements(free cars), cosmetic contracts, movie scripts, and the phone is still ringing.
It Looks like Bravo has struck gold with their millionaire positive power team in Ben & Jewel Tankard. The Tankards are on a Hollywood promo tour this week that includes The Hollywood Insider. Even with all their business travel, the Tankards have a strong love for their community and always beat it home by Sundays to serve and give back as non-salary Pastors of Destiny Center Church of Murfreesboro, TN. In a small quaint town near Nashville, their congregation of under 500 members is loving and very friendly. When in the area, drop in and see them, they will no doubt ” leave the light on for you “.
Courtesy of http://www.thebellereport.net http://www.twitter.com/thebellereport http://www.youtube.com/thebelletv
