The Bible, a Mark Burnett brain child with his wife Roma Downey was warmly welcomed by Aussies in its television premiere.

Just before its Australian debut in Channel 9, Burnett was apprehensive if The Bible can get Aussies talking about the Bible - because primarily that was what they aimed when they conceptualized the project.

In a previous interview before the launch, Burnett said, "It would be very odd if someone walked up to you and said let's talk about the bible. You'd probably be taken aback. But if they come up and say did you see the Bible series? Let's talk about that, then you'd be much more open to discuss it. There might be some slight inaccuracies or additions here and there, but that is to make it a connective story for TV. The outcome is a giving of permission for people to discuss the Bible and connect more."

And from the ratings obtained by the show, it looked like Burnett was successful in his aim.

According to a report from Courier Mail, there were 880,000 viewers across Australia's five capital cities who tuned in for the first hour of The Bible. During the second hour, The Bible still rated remarkably with 793,000 viewers. These are truly remarkable figures since the show started late at 9.15 pm and its final scenes screening around 11.15pm.

The Bible had definitely won the Aussies over its rivals shows by Seven's Winners & Losers and Ten's MasterChef Australia.

Winners & Losers only got 867,000 viewers while MasterChef Australia got 719,000 viewers.

The Bible had also outrated Abba special - Abba: Dancing Queen which only got 684,000 viewers and ABC's New tricks with 807,000 viewers.

The premier episode showed the life of Noah, Moses, Abraham and Joshua and tackled biblical stories about Sodom and Gomorrah, the Exodus and the Ten Commandments.

According to a spokesperson from Channel 9, the network is planning a repeat on July 20 but the timeslot was yet to be finalized.

The success of The Bible in Australia was expected since the show also had 13.1 million viewers when it was being shown in the U.S. According to reports, the show was also the highest selling TV DVD series in the past five years and that more than 95 million viewers have watched The Bible through its DVD.

There had also been talks that Burnett had readied a sequel to the show entitled AD: Beyond the Bible.

According to the review of Adrian Chambers from The West, "the promo claims it's bloodier than Foxtel's epic game of Thrones, and that's saying something. But right from the get go, as soon as Noah finishes his spiel on his massive Ark, there's some evidence for the brash claim but its nowhere near as dark and gloomy as much of GoT is, or as gory.

Heaps of violent action scenes, but much seems overly theatrical. At one stage I thought I was watching a kung-fu movie. There are many new faces, which is refreshing. But it's surprisingly slow-paced, which maybe is why it copped a late weeknight timeslot."

The Bible was filmed on location in Morocco. The story tackles biblical character's lives from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation.