The trailer in brief
Three 1980s televangelists build vast primetime media ministries
Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart at its centre
A public sex scandal sparks a holy war
Directed by Academy Award nominee Joe Berlinger
Arrives on Netflix on 14 November 2026
Three of America’s most powerful televangelists of the 1980s, Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart, are the focus of Primetime Preacher$, a new documentary from Academy Award nominee Joe Berlinger. The filmmaker, known for Paradise Lost and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, traces how these men used television to turn their ministries into international broadcasting empires and push evangelical Christianity into American politics.
When a shocking and very public sex scandal broke, it set off an all-out holy war among the three preachers. That feud captivated the nation and exposed what lay beneath their empires. Berlinger’s investigation looks at the greed, ego and rivalry building behind the pulpit during the golden age of televangelism. South African viewers can stream it on Netflix from 14 November 2026.
The details
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