Mark Burnett is the king of reality television. His shows and spinoffs command hours of prime-time television real estate. The seal of his production company One Three Media appears at the end of "Survivor," "The Voice," "The Apprentice," "Shark Tank," "The Job" and "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?"

He will tell you each show was No. 1 in the time slot. He will tell you he will take on all comers in his bare-knuckle, ratings-driven world and beat them. He will tell you on any given day he has 150 video-editing systems churning through edits on his dossier, which spans the three major broadcast networks.

But if you suggest he may not have the chops to take on a massive scripted dramatic presentation of the Bible as a 10-hour miniseries, his eyes will tell you he wants to throttle you.

My bad.

Burnett and wife, Roma Downey, have been barnstorming the country like roving preachers on horseback trying to evangelize the West. Their gospel is spreading the news of "The Bible" - their ambitious project that aims to tell the story of the Bible in 10 installments. It begins its weeklong premiere on the History Channel Sunday night.

We met in the lobby of the Washington Hilton the night before last month's National Prayer Breakfast. They were in town to speak to Washington journalists and show clips from their project.

Burnett and Downey's project tackles the narrative of the Bible, a story woven through 66 books of the Old Testament and New Testament. It's a story revered by billions as divine revelation -- and one they've compressed into 10 hours of television. What could possibly go wrong?

A lot.

Many have taken aim at dramatizing the stories of the Bible. Few of those productions stood the test of time. They knew all that going in 3 1/2 years ago when "the light bulb went off," as Downey puts it.

"It's been a great fun journey right, Roma?" Burnett said to his wife of nearly six years.

"And we're still talking to each other," Downey said, smiling.

Both Downey and Burnett were raised Catholic, Burnett in England and Downey in Ireland. They still regularly attend Mass in Los Angeles. Growing up, both watched the classic Biblical films that the Hollywood of yesteryear churned out, like "The Ten Commandments" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

"In Ireland, we used to sit up and wait for John Wayne to say, 'Surely that man was the Son of God,' at the end of 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' every Easter," Downey said, with her thick Irish brogue dipping into a delightfully terrible John Wayne impersonation.

After showing their kids "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston, their three teenagers had one request for the Bible project. They told their parents, "Please don't make it lame."

Making it work

The project is personal for Burnett and Downey, coming from a deep spiritual desire for more people to see and experience the stories of their faith. As Europeans, now naturalized U.S. citizens, they are stunned the Bible is not taught in public schools.

"It was time for an updating. Adding fresh visual life to a sacred text," Burnett said.

"People have great hearts and great knowledge but no experience of filmmaking and no budgets," Burnett said of past telling of the stories on film and television.

"Or the resources," Downey chimed in. "We wanted to create something that was gritty and authentic. We certainly didn't want everyone to look like they stepped out of the dry cleaners."

Burnett and Downey may not have been high on the list of many studios as producers and directors to put a massive scripted project like this together. "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" starring Donald Trump and Gary Busey is not exactly" Ben-Hur," and Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green spinning in chairs on the singing competition "The Voice" isn't often (or ever) compared to the "Ten Commandments."