The Bible gave her one line… now her legend will be told.

This empowering quote from Lifetime serves as so much more than the tagline to its upcoming miniseries, The Red Tent. It’s the basis for the show’s entire marketing campaign, but also, quite simply, the origin story of its almost entirely fabricated lead character.

Courtesy of Lifetime, the novel on every book club list a decade ago has been transformed into an epic, two-night story airing Dec. 7 and 8. Dinah, who is mentioned briefly in the book of Genesis, is largely only talked about in reference to the men in her family. Author Anita Diamant and Lifetime set out to change that.

First published in 1997, Dinah serves as the book’s narrator, explaining the tradition of the red tent. This tent is a safe haven for her mother, Leah, and her father Jacob’s other wives, whom she also calls mother: Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah. The red tent is where Dinah learns a midwife’s duties, but also where she comes to understand and value the history and traditions of her family’s women.

While Diamant’s novel is based on a biblical character, she holds firm that it is a fictional account of family and womanhood, not necessarily of religion or faith. At an advance screening in Los Angeles on Nov. 10, she said the story “truly celebrates women’s relationships with each other.” She added, “I think women have always lived lives of dignity and courage, and I wanted to portray that.”

Lifetime followed her lead. “The book was a huge phenomenon – not something you can ignore,” said Valerie Albanese, SVP of brand creative at Lifetime. “We definitely wanted to ride some of those coattails.”


And so The Red Tent’s key art, teasers and imagery boast about the book’s success – it was a New York Times best-seller thanks to independent booksellers and book clubs around the country. But it’s not just Diamant’s success that Lifetime highlights, it’s also the pedigree of the women on which the story focuses. The TV event stars Golden Globe nominee Rebecca Ferguson as Dinah, Oscar nominee Minnie Driver as her mother, Leah, Game of Thrones’ Iain Glen as her father, Jacob, Emmy nominee Morena Baccarin as Rachel and Oscar nominee Debra Winger as Rebecca.

Short pieces produced by Lifetime further served to shine a spotlight on the story’s female leads, quite literally providing a close-up of the strong characters and the beautiful, scenic backdrop.

According to Danielle Carrig, SVP of publicity and public affairs at Lifetime, “This is one of the best productions we’ve done, so epic and so sweeping. We wanted to showcase that.”

Lifetime wasn’t worried about attracting a younger audience of women as well as men, despite the female-centric storyline. They figured that as soon as they showed clips featuring the scenery and intense action, they’d have all Lifetime fans hooked.

“With the promos and the key art, we wanted to go for something that felt epic and big,” said Albanese. “But on air, we were careful not to make this feel old. Even though it’s a biblical story, we wanted to make it feel contemporary.”

The main trailer used a song by Grammy-winning band The Civil Wars, “The Devil’s Backbone,” relying on a modern track to give the story an updated feel.

Diamant says that when her book was released in 1997, she “took a lot of flak for it not being faithful to The Bible.” Her response? Of course it’s not completely faithful – it’s a work of fiction. One of the concerns in marketing The Red Tent for Lifetime was attracting both religious and secular groups to the story, knowing that the book has a basis in scripture though a large percentage of it is a fictional account.

“I think women have always lived lives of dignity and courage, and I wanted to portray that.” -Author Anita Diamant

The network partnered with an organization called Women of Faith to attract a faith-based audience to the show, promoting the miniseries at its events around the country, discussing issues within the story at its community programs and even creating a conversation guide for Lifetime to encourage viewing parties. Discussions focused on the spiritual basis of the novel and miniseries, but with a larger view of The Red Tent as a work of fiction that applies to modern women’s lives.

Encouraged by the success of The Bible on History, Lifetime’s sister channel under the A+E Networks umbrella, The Red Tent has also scheduled a lead-in special from Roma Downey called Women of the Bible. The special will air directly before The Red Tent on Dec. 7, sharing perspectives on characters in The Bible including Eve, Sara, Mary Magdalene and Mother Mary from scholars, theologians and authors. It repurposes some content from History’s Bible miniseries, adding some contemporary points of view from the female perspective.

“Our focus really was trying to bring not just Dinah’s, but the general women’s perspective to life,” said Albanese. “Because you just didn’t hear big women-based stories in The Bible.”

“I think our job as a network is to introduce the 20-30-something crowd to this material,” said Carrig. “How great would it be if it could inspire this new crop of women to go back to the book, back to this epic story?”

Lifetime will air The Red Tent over two nights, beginning Sunday, Dec. 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT with the second part airing on Monday, Dec. 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

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