The Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate draws more interest with every hour, both from media and from the lay public. The latest hints from Answers in Genesis signal a shift in their plans, toward carrying the event on live television.

Tickets sell out

On Monday morning, tickets to the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate went on sale on-line. Within two minutes, according to AiG and local TV stations (including WLKY-TV in Kentucky), the Creation Museum sold nearly 800 general-admission tickets. Those were to every seat they could spare. (AiG reserved 100 seats for senior staff, Ken Ham’s family, media, and selected pastors.)

After the sellout, AiG announced plans to sell temporary subscriptions to a live Internet video stream. They also said they would sell a DVD of the debate, and a video download.

But late yesterday, the page for selling the stream subscriptions changed.

No more video stream?

Today, man decides truth whatever. From the AiG Creation Museum

Today the page no longer shows offers for buying video stream subscriptions, nor the DVD nor the download. Instead, AiG says they put the plans for the video stream “on hold.”

They have not canceled plans for the video stream yet. Many have already bought subscriptions. If AiG cancels the stream, they will refund the subscription price. Subscriptions sold for slightly less than five dollars.

The page shows conflicting messages. At the bottom of the page, AiG says they are not likely to televise the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate. But in the “Update” they say they “are looking into other exciting opportunities for people to watch the debate live.”

The live TV option

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That surely will include live television. Mark Looy, yesterday morning, told the National Creationism Examiner specifically his office is negotiating with “a large secular television network.” He refused to say which. Nor has any prominent broadcast or cable TV network released any news about covering the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate. Likely candidates include:

• PBS. They originally carried the “Bill Nye the Science Guy” program from 1993-1998.
• Fox News Channel. They are one of the few networks ever to carry the Creation Museum’s TV advertising.
• Discovery. True, one of their contributors did say publicly that “scientists should [not] debate creationists.” But might that have been a perverse play for publicity?
• CNBC. Bill Nye has recently appeared on some of their programs, though not to talk about his debate. (More on that below.)

Again, none of those three have dropped any hints of working on any such deal.

What’s Bill Nye doing now?

Bill Nye has said nothing further in public about his upcoming debate. Most recently he appeared on CNBC to discuss a possible future of “polar vortex” related cold. About four years ago he made this episode of the PBS program “University Place” to talk about global warming.

Reprinted from examiner.com.

Related articles:

• Bill Nye, Ken Ham debate: sellout crowd
• Bill Nye, call off debate! – columnist
• Bill Nye, Ken Ham to debate creation

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