″I just don’t think Jimmy needs that pressure at this time,″ he said. The ministry’s television cutbacks will give Swaggart a break he needs, so he can eventually return to preaching, Brewer said. Two other cable networks with more than 76 million subscribers had stopped carrying Swaggart earlier. The network has 13.3 million subscribers and 1,015 stations, according to Cablevision Magazine. Two weeks ago, the Swaggart ministries canceled its contract with Trinity Broadcasting Network, one of the largest religious broadcasting networks in the country, said Colby May, a spokesman and lawyer for the Santa Ana, Calif.- based network. 11, Swaggart was pulled over in a red-light district of Indio, Calif., with a prostitute in his car. 6 of this year, the most recent reporting period for Arbitron Syndicated Program Analysis. The figure was 403,000 households and 93 markets from July 10 to Aug. Swaggart’s television audience dwindled when he was ousted from the Assemblies of God in 1988 after being photographed with Debra Murphree, a prostitute.Ībout 1.9 million households in 191 markets watched in February 1988, the month Swaggart tearfully confessed to an unspecified sin. ″I can tell you there is not going to be any financial collapse.″ ″I know the ministry is not insolvent by any means,″ he said. The Bible college eliminated four departments and its basketball program. Employees estimated the number at anywhere from dozens to 200. Ministry officials didn’t answer requests for interviews about layoffs. No service is held on Saturdays, he said. Swaggart can be reached only by attending his services, said a man who answered the phone Saturday at the Swaggart ministries. ″I hate having to do this, but I don’t feel like at this time, and due to everything that has happened - I can’t continue carrying this show,″ said Charles Reed, station manager of KMCT-TV, a Christian station in Monroe. Several top ministry officials resigned, others were laid off, the Bible college was cut back and several television stations canceled contracts. The apparent end of Swaggart’s TV empire came after a trying week for Swaggart. A lot of them may stop donating when they don’t see the shows,″ he said. ″In the past they saw the television shows, so they knew where their money was going. Without a television ministry, potential donors ″will wonder what they are giving him the money for,″ Brandt Gustavson, executive director of National Religious Broadcasters, told the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. It also is trying to sell undeveloped land to help cut expenses and focus on Swaggart’s Family Worship Center, Jimmy Swaggart Bible College in Baton Rouge and programs to help children in foreign countries. Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, which had 2.1 million viewers in 1987, is arranging to sell much of its television equipment, Brewer said Friday.
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