Jenesis Productions

The storms behind the scenes of Daystar Television Network

In the 18 months that followed, the Lamb children and their spouses co-hosted the hour-long live broadcast, Ministry Now. Sympathy poured in from across the world as they struggled to cope with the patriarch’s death. It was noticeable that Joni was losing weight, which is not unusual during the grief process. Everything seemed hunky-dory behind the scenes as the family rallied and stepped up to fill the enormous gap left by Marcus’s death. Fast forward to March 2023 when an announcement by Joni Lamb sent shock waves through the viewership of this worldwide Christian Network; Joni was getting remarried to a man who was known to Daystar because he had been a guest numerous times throughout the years. His name was Dr. Doug Weiss, a psychologist, marriage and sex therapist, recovering sex addict, who recently divorced his wife of more than three decades, Lisa. That was the moment things began to get sticky.

Joni told her viewers that she mourned her husband of 40 years for six months and cried every night. A friend and programmer on Daystar, Drenda Keesee, informed Joni that the Lord told her He was going to send a man into her life and not to be afraid. Enter the newly-divorced Doug Weiss who was about to start airing his program, Healing Time, on Daystar. Doug gave Joni, the president of the network, a “courtesy call” to let her know his program was going to start airing and to inform her he was now divorced. What is unclear is why Joni didn’t know which programs were on her network or why Doug would have her personal phone number if they were merely casual acquaintances and had a business relationship. Regardless, that phone call led to a series of calls that lasted dozens of hours. Finally, the two decided to meet in New York City. However, according to an interview with Joni during Candy Christmas’ Marvelous Woman Conference in March 2023, Joni said Colorado-based Doug came to Dallas first and the two planned to meet at her home, away from the public eye. Joni told the estrogen-laced crowd that when she picked Doug up at the airport and watched him walk to her car, she thought, “Oh, I’m in trouble.” Later, while the good doctor was in her home, Joni’s daughter Rebecca called because she wanted to bring her little son over to swim in the pool on the Lamb estate. Joni said she tried to discourage Rebecca, but she was insistent, so Joni jumped in her car and had Dr. Doug lay on the backseat to hide from Rebecca. The story got appreciative cackles from the mostly female audience, and the interview was quickly scrubbed from the internet.

Next came the chaperoned trip to the Big Apple in August 2022. Missing from the current account is that the “chaperones” were Joni’s son, Jonathan, and his wife, Suzy. It was there that Doug claims that God told him to buy Joni a heart necklace at Tiffany’s and kiss her in front of the Empire State Building.

Dr. Doug Weiss and his first wife, Lisa, were guests on Daystar dozens of times. Doug often lavished praise on his wife and insisted divorce was never an option.

In another article, “Protect the Miracle” published on May 3, 2016, Doug writes, “My marriage to Lisa is a miracle; God did it, not me.”

After a couple of honeymoon trips, the tanned and rested duo went back to work. Doug now perched in the host seat, formerly occupied by Joni’s children and their spouses, and his bride introduced him as the new host of Ministry Now. It was awkward, but viewers hadn’t seen anything yet.

Marcus and Joni’s only son, Jonathan, was credited with keeping Daystar afloat after his father’s untimely passing. However, that seemed to be forgotten during the July 11, 2023 episode of Ministry Now. Jonathan finished his segment, and said, “Back to you, Mom.” That seemed innocent enough but caused newlywed Joni to visibly flare and reprimand him on the live broadcast for not mentioning hubby, Dr. Doug. That was the last viewers saw of Jonathan Lamb and his wife, Suzy on Daystar programs. The official word from Daystar was they were on sabbatical. Comments that pressed the issue were deleted from Daystar’s social media and users blocked from the accounts on multiple platforms. Joni was very vocal about censorship during the COVID-19 crisis and Daystar sued Vimeo, a video hosting platform, for removing its COVID-19 content. Now Daystar was deleting and blocking people in its audience who had questions and differing viewpoints.

As the months continued to pass with no mention of Jonathan, Suzy, or their two children on Daystar, questions about when they were coming back to the broadcast intensified. Meanwhile, the newlyweds were plenty busy. Joni had purchased a property down the street from the mansion she shared with Marcus in Colleyville, TX, and had the house that was on it demolished.

It wasn’t addressed whether that was the same “holy spirit” she credits with making Doug her second husband since the outcome was divorce rather than reconciliation in the Weiss marriage. The wedding video was broadcast months after the nuptials. It is called “Love’s Miracle.”

While juggling all of the busyness and also running a world-wide Christian television network, according to the Trinity Foundation’s investigation, there were 13 round-trip flights on Daystar’s jet from Ft. Worth to Destin, Florida. The perpetually tanned Dr. Weiss and his new bride must have fallen in love with the Florida Panhandle because, the Trinity Foundation reports, the couple bought a $2.9 million beach condo in Sept. 2023. Also in their real estate portfolio: a lake house in Granbury, TX which she and Marcus purchased, and Doug still owns the home he shared with the previous Mrs. Weiss in Colorado Springs. It was listed for sale in March 2023 but taken off the market six months later.

Recently, it is apparent through social media posts, that the cat is wrestling to get out of the proverbial bag. Suzy Lamb is clearly ready to spill the beans. The seemingly submissive and stunning daughter-in-law of the powerful Lamb family is finding her voice.

More posts followed and have hundreds of supportive comments, including some from her husband and Joni’s only son, Jonathan Lamb, and her mother, Tanuja Sagar. She, along with her husband, Jai, were fired from their positions as spiritual advisors supervising Daystar’s highly-promoted prayer line.

Despite public rumblings, it’s business as usual at Daystar. Dr. Doug took a week off to travel to Colorado Springs to “heal people.” The Daystar jet felt the calling a few days after he left, making a jaunt to Colorado Springs on May 15. Airplanes must be very dear to the Lamb dynasty. After the Trinity Foundation published its investigation into the use of the ministry jet, the family did a skit live on the air to celebrate son-in-law Joshua Brown’s birthday. The theme was who could identify the airlines by looking at the tail emblems. Grandson Judah Brown was also featured in the game show-style production on the Christian broadcast network. Little Judah gleefully shouted out the correct answers in prerecorded snippets while wearing a bomber jacket. Earlier, Joni received flowers from her sons-in-law, Joshua (married to daughter Rachel) and Jonathan Weiss (married to daughter Rebecca and no relation to Doug.) Joni thanked them for the bouquet, referring to them as her beautiful “sons”, but did not say a word about her firstborn son, Jonathan Lamb. The episode was quickly deleted after it aired.

There is a storm brewing. The silence of the Lambs is being broken, bit by bit, post by post. Buckle up, or as they say in the broadcasting industry…stay tuned!