Protests from across the U.S. have succeeded in taking a controversial new TV series on a drug-addicted priest off the air.

|PIC1|Two more NBC affiliates announced last week that they would no longer air the controversial new series “The Book of Daniel,” which has sparked criticism from media and television viewers across the nation for its "edgy" content.

Nashville’s WSMV-TV and Amarillo, Texas-based KAMR-TV chose to discontinue the series last week after receiving numerous complaints, sources reported.

The cancellations by the two channels bring the total number of NBC affiliates not airing “Daniel” to seven. A station in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, has also considered dropping the show.

According to The Tennessean, WSMV’s general voice mailbox shut down within 20 hours after airing the two hour premier of “Daniel” on 6 January because 137 complaint messages had jammed the machine. The station also received complaints via e-mail and regular mail.

“Over the years, other shows have generated as much or more reaction, but this wasn’t a cut-and-paste reaction where a national group says, ‘Please send an e-mail to your station’ and every e-mail is the same,” WSMV-TV General Manager Elden Hale Jr. told the Tennessean.

|TOP|“These were individually created, considered, well-thought, well-reasoned e-mails and phone calls,” he said.

“The Book of Daniel,” which stars Aidan Quinn as a pill-popping Episcopalian priest who regularly converses with a “modern-day” Jesus, has drawn criticism from both Christian and mainstream media for the behavior of the show’s main characters.

The show centres around the Webster family, which includes a homosexual son, a pot-dealing daughter, a skirt-chasing Chinese step-son, and an alcoholic wife.

In a statement issued Thursday, NBC defended “Daniel,” which it referred to as a “quality fictional drama,” saying that it is “confident that our viewers can appreciate this creative depiction of one American family and will understand it to be an entertaining work of fiction.”

|AD|Jack Kenny, the program’s writer and producer, said that he never intended to, “poke fun at Jesus,” saying that the show’s characters “believe in God ... [and] believe in Christ as their Savior,” according to Religion News Service.

Christian groups have been especially vocal about the show’s portrayal of Jesus Christ, played by actor Garrett Dillahunt. Colorado Springs-based group Focus on the Family described the character as being a “wimpy, white-robed visitor who cares little about evil, addictions and perversity.”

The Rev. Mark H. Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, wrote in a recent commentary that the show was a “slight on genuine faith in Christ,” saying that it “highlights and emphasizes ‘a form of godliness,’ but denies the power of the Gospel to transform a life.”

American Family Association (AFA) president Tim Wildmon, whose organization has spearheaded protest efforts against “Daniel,” says that the show is an, “extremely offensive programme to Christians ... very sacrilegious” and that it “depicts Jesus in a very cartoonish manner.”

In addition to encouraging television viewers to contact local stations, the AFA has also asked those concerned about the content of “Daniel” to contact local advertisers on the programme to pull their support for the show.

“Our objective at American Family Association is to kill the show ‘The Book of Daniel,’” says Wildmon. “Whether it’s getting NBC affiliates not to air it or having it to lose all its advertisers – we’re working in both directions.”

Reports say “Daniel” aired only 23 commercials on its inaugural, two-hour episode – about half the amount for two hours in primetime, according to sources – and four out of five national advertisers have already pulled their support for the show, with only Burlington Coat Factory remaining.

According to the Agape Press, Wildmon is hopeful NBC will “pull the plug” on the show before it airs all eight episodes.