|PIC1|"Revealed," which premiered Saturday night, is similar to MTV's "Unplugged" and VH1's "Storytellers" in that each episode features popular artists who perform in front of a mostly small and intimate live audience. During the one-hour episodes, artists also tell stories about their music, writing experiences and memories.
"The secret sauce in what makes us different is the faith element," says Brad Siegel, GMC's vice chairman and a former president of Turner Entertainment Networks.
"When there is scripture behind a song, they can tell the audience. The more they reveal, the more satisfied the viewer," he told the Journal-Constitution newspaper of Atlanta, where GMC is based and "Revealed" is taped.
For the premiere episode, GMC tapped Atlanta's most successful Christian rock band, Third Day, who have expressed high expectations for the new series after the taping of the first episode last month.
"Sometimes you get the sense that something really special is happening as it's going on. This was definitely one of those times," Third Day guitarist Mark Lee reported after the band spent nearly 5 hours for the first episode.
"[W]e did extended introductions to the songs where we shared about recording the songs in the studio or the story behind the lyric. I think [our fans] are really going to dig this," he added.
Among the songs featured in "Third Day: Revealed" are "Always Be True," "Call My Name," "Cry Out To Jesus," "I've Always Loved You," "Love Song, Revelation," "Tunnel" and "Your Love Oh Lord" – just a small handful of the award-winning songs that have led the band to 23 career Dove Awards, three Graymmy Awards (with eight career nominations), an American Music Award, three AMA nominations and multiple ASCAP honors.
"Third Day: Revealed" will broadcast again this Thursday at 10 p.m. ET. on Gospel Music Channel, which reaches more than 43 million homes on various cable systems around the country and on DIRECTV on channel 338.
Artists featured in upcoming installments of "Revealed" include Jars of Clay (April 4) and Israel Houghton (April 25).