Your Season 4 wait is over (+ important news)

all right here we are

finally so I need you to pay close

attention because not only am I going to

give you the when of season 4 and I can

now add very too soon and not only am I

going to give you the how to watch of

season 4 there are only two ways I have

some very important information about

how we got to this situation what you've

heard or said that's been wrong and what

all this means for the future of the

chosen if all you care about is the when

and how of season 4 you can scroll

through this video for it and that's

fine but if you are an investor or if

you've donated or if you consider

yourself a partner or family member in

any way of this project everything I

have to share is very important first

things first the wi I won't toy with you

about that as I've mentioned we've had a

legal dispute with Angel Studios which

I'll explain in a moment and we just

received word of the decision and I am

happy to tell you that episode one of

season 4 will launch this Sunday at 7:00

eastern time and as I've said we will

release two episodes per week so episode

two will be Thursday at 8:30 Eastern

Time episodes will release on Sundays

and Thursdays for the next month again 7

o'clock on Sunday nights 8:30 on

Thursday nights now I'm going to give

you the how later in this video and if

you want to watch in double speed to get

there that's fine and it's very

important you pay attention so you can

help others when you spread the word but

before that I really do need to share

why we're here and why there was a delay

I'm going to stick to the facts not any

mind reading or accusations or

hyperbole so the chosen launched in 2017

with the shepherd our pilot episode

which was a short film I made on my

friend's Farm in Illinois 20 minutes

from my house this is chosen lore it was

about the birth of Christ from the

perspective of the Shepherds and it was

then that I came up with the idea for a

multi-season show about Jesus and his

followers that short film got in the

hands of a company which at the time was

called vid Angel and they were looking

for new projects to expand to expand

their platform Neil and Jeffrey Harmon

ran vid Angel and when they heard my

idea for the show they were very

emotional and they said we want to do it

and we want this to be our signature

show that launches our original content

initiatives and I got really excited and

then they said they wanted to raise the

money through crowdfunding and I got

really depressed because crowdfunding

rarely works and the all-time media

crowdfunding record was over $5 million

which seemed impossible for something

that we were doing but I was coming off

of a career failure I didn't think

anyone else would be interested and I

decided to take the risk and try

something potentially special and the

harmans were convinced this would be a

massive hit and they predicted it would

change the world long story short they

were right their idea worked we

shattered the all-time crowdfunding fing

record with over 16,000 of you investing

over $10 million in our company and this

show and as I talk to you now we are

filming season five now before I say

anything else let me be clear the chosen

would not have launched without some of

the ideas initiatives and extraordinary

efforts of the Harmon Brothers and so

many of the incredible employees at

their company they introduced me to my

founding partner Daryl EES and we both

love them and will always feel a great

sense of appreciation for what they did

to help bring this show to the world so

what's the problem you might ask well

pretty early on we realized the good

news and bad news of how this project

would work the good news was that

working with Angel meant I had total

creative freedom and ownership which was

awesome the tough news was that we

realized we were responsible for

immeasurably more than any of us

expected in order for this show to

survive this became even more true when

after charging you to watch the show

didn't work we decided the show should

be free and angel came up with the Pay

It Forward model where you could choose

to pay for the show for yourself and

others so it could be free around the

world but here's a quick overview of

what we as the chosen have been faced

with of your pay it forward

contributions less than half of it

actually came to us it was somewhere

around 40% the rest went to marketing

and Angel Studios now if we were a

one-off movie and that was just our

share of income that actually might be

great but we were solely responsible for

the financing of future Seasons as in

every dollar for production came from

our side also we had to form a company

for all of this our company is

responsible for and must pay for all of

our legal stuff including the fact that

we're a public company that must report

to the SEC I'll spare you all the

details but it's all very expensive our

International efforts to meet the

extraordinary demands around the world

especially keeping it free for people

around the world all of our social media

Pages our live streams which we quickly

realized were essential to our income

and all of our marketing content like

our videos and posters and memes and

everything we Post online because we are

a free show our direct relationship with

you is the lifeblood of our survival and

we had to finance and execute all of

that

relationship we went from just Daryl and

me working for free to getting modest

salaries to hiring a few people to help

to eventually growing to where we are

now and today we have over 65 full-time

employees and are a fully-fledged

company with a board an HR department

Etc all the usual things to sustain

ourselves and in order to meet the

demands and pay our employees we finance

that solely with our gift sales not the

production money that was coming in

through pay it forwards which includes

books DVDs and apparel now if you ever

felt annoyed by seeing me all the time

doing live streams and offering gifts

well without that we wouldn't have a

company company it's as simple as that

none of that includes our primary

responsibility which is making the show

the writing producing directing

pre-production post-production Etc all

of that is massive and of course

requires millions of dollars and yes

even though our budgets are a fraction

of other shows that have our level of

viewership the budgets get bigger every

year and fairly significantly now a fair

question is why is that well not only is

the story getting bigger in the scope

each season as the followers increase of

Jesus and we get to Jerusalem

you need to remember that for casting

crew we are filming four to five months

a year for seven years and that takes us

off the market for other full-time jobs

so we must make a full-time living from

this show not to mention that when this

show is done there is no guarantee of a

future and then there's me I don't want

any sympathy genuinely this is the

opportunity of a lifetime and it has

changed my life and my wife's life and

our family immensely and we've gotten to

see and experience some extraordinary

things but this show is year round every

day and not only am I the co-writer

director and producer of a big show but

I'm the co-founder Chief creative

officer and chairman of the board of our

large company as well as our live

streamer and I do videos like this

normally a studio or network or streamer

covers all this and they have a huge

infrastructure to manage it all and a

show just gets to focus on being a show

and I just get to focus on making the

show but we've had to do almost

everything from scratch it simply wasn't

sustainable and financially to finance

future seasons on time as well as our

company we had to shift so we came to a

new agreement with Angel studios in 2022

and part of that allowed us to shift our

relationship to come and see the

nonprofit whose mission includes getting

the chosen to the world and financing

our production the old chosen app became

the angel app where other projects were

added and we created a new chosen app

solely dedicated to the chosen so now

when you donate to come and see 100% of

your donations goes to the production

and marketing and international

translations of the chosen again let me

say that again

100% CC has guaranteed that future

seasons will be financed and on schedule

but of course they still need your help

in making that happen gift sales and

licenses with third parties such as

other streamers and broadcasters will

continue to financially sustain our

overhead and growth as a company now

with that 2022 agreement seasons of the

show were released simultaneously on the

angel and chosen apps before they were

released anywhere else what happened

next is the Crux of why we are here

today our contention is that shortly

after the agreement Angel Studios

breached our contract on multiple

occasions to the extent that we believed

and should be terminated which would

dissolve our relationship with angel

angel of course disagrees with that

assessment and ultimately the only way

to solve the dispute Ute was to exercise

the provision in the contract where we

engaged a thirdparty

arbitrator we wanted to solve this in a

Biblical way which was to not make it a

public spectacle private arbitration was

the only way to do this in a way that

didn't harm the show or the reputation

of Jesus and this project now let me

clear up some gross misconceptions I

have seen in social media comments

number one this was not a lawsuit Angel

didn't sue the chosen The Chosen didn't

sue Angel we simply had an arbitrator

decide whether or not the contract had

been breached and should be terminated

number two we didn't come to the we

didn't come to the decision lightly but

it was our decision to terminate the

contract and ask an arbitrator to rule

on the termination I want to make that

clear number three no one was doing this

for greed or spite or for more fame or

to go Hollywood please when it comes to

our social media discourse we must be

better and the mind reading gossip and

accusations about motive must stop both

Angel and the chosen want this show to

reach over a billion people and both of

us want the show to be sustainable we

just obviously have significant

differences of opinion on how to do that

and what our future should be good

people can disagree and what makes and

it's what makes what I'm about to say

very sad and not something I take any

pleasure in yesterday Tuesday May 28th

we received the arbitrator's decision

and he comprehensively affirmed our

position and agreed that the contract

had been breached in multiple and

material ways which means that the

contract is indeed terminated and the

chosen relationship with Angel Studios

is effectively

over

[Music]

again we take no pleasure in this and we

want to reiterate our deep appreciation

for their immeasurable role in helping

launch this

show I'm going to say that again we do

not take pleasure in this and I want to

thank Angel and the Haron Brothers for

their extraordinary efforts in helping

launch this show but we came to the

conclusion that we simply had no choice

for the future of our company and this

show and the law agreed of course the

situation is still ongoing I can't give

you all the details and I don't know

exactly what the future holds in regards

to Angel but here's what it means in the

short term season 4 will only be

available in the chosen app or on DVD

this suay Night episode one will launch

as a live streams as a live stream on

the social on the chosen social media

pages and the chosen app and then it

will be available in the chosen app

exclusively for a window of time so to

be clear if you want to watch The Chosen

season 4 over the next month you either

need to watch our live streams watch it

via streaming in the chosen app or order

our season 4 DVD in our gift store which

will allow you to binge all Eight

Episodes at once if you want to watch

them all at once and you don't want to

wait for our live streams DVD the old

old school way DVD Blu-ray is the way to

do that the chosen app is totally free

and easy to find you just look it up on

your mobile device tablet or phone or to

watch it on your TV which is the best

way to watch it's available free and

easy on Apple TV Fire TV Roku and Google

TV other platforms and devices we're

working on uh but those are the the

primary for Apple TV Fire TV Roku and

Google TV it's also available online at

www.the chosen.tv some of these things

are being uh are listed along the bottom

of your screen they'll also be in the

description of the video The Chosen will

continue to be free forever it might not

always be free first like Seasons might

come out and first be available in

theaters or on another platform for a

Time potentially we'll see how the

future goes but the chosen will always

eventually be free and season 4 will be

free starting this Sunday and of course

seasons 1 through three are also Free

and Easy in the chosen app also very

important if you already have the chos

an app please update it you go to the

App Store and you click update it's as

simple as that there will be some new

things and there will be some new ways

to uh to execute and to engage with this

app so make sure it's updated if you

have any issues please email I want you

to write this down please email appthe

chosen.tv appthe chosen.tv or if you're

in your mobile device you can click on

the help button but emailing app at the

chosen.tv we do have support team ready

to help they're very good they will

answer all your questions and do

everything they can to help you out the

app also has a ton of bonus content and

it's the one place you can donate to

come it's one of the places sorry you

can donate to come and see to finance

future Seasons now if you don't want to

get a new app and you've watched it thus

far on other platforms whether it's

angel or Amazon or peacock where you've

seen seasons 1 through three or Netflix

where you've seen season one at least

here in the states what can you do well

eventually season 4 will be available

additionally on some other platforms and

other broadcasters here and around the

world but those dates aren't set yet so

if you want watch the season 4 now I

highly highly highly recommend in fact I

I require you to go watch it on the

chosen app if you want to wait that's

fine too and we'll let you know when

it's available elsewhere so to

summarize as of now our contract with

Angel Studios is terminated and the only

place to watch season 4 is on our live

streams on our social on our live

streams on our social media and the

chosen app or dvd also the only way to

support the chosen financially is by

donating to come and see or by

purchasing gifts and finally season 4

launches this Sunday at 7 o'clock

Eastern on our social media pages and

the chosen app start spreading the word

mark it in your calendar this Sunday

night it's going to be a great night at

7 o'clock Eastern thank you for your

time and patience this delay has been

awful and the last year and a half or so

has been among the hardest months of our

show's existence but we now have a clear

and exciting path moving forward and you

remain a huge part of it we'll continue

to get our show to you free and easy and

we'll continue to partner with you in

getting it to every corner of the world

in hundreds of languages so in

conclusion I'll say what I always do

it's not your job to feed the 5,000 it's

only to provide the Loaves and fish Five

Loaves and two fish and we're going to

continue to provide our Loaves and fish

you'll continue to provide yours and

we're going to experience our

extraordinary future together thank you