The creator of hit faith-based series “The Chosen” has apologised after deceiving fans with “defaced” billboards.

“I do regret not informing and including our core fans in our defacing gag because that caused some unintended confusion and disappointment,” Chosen creator Dallas Jenkins said.

Earlier this month, fans were alarmed and upset after believing the billboards of their favourite TV series had been damaged with white and red spray graffiti reading “The Chosen is boring” and a link that directed users to a website called “The Chosen is Not Good.”

But producers of the show have since admitted that the “damaged billboards” were in fact all part of a marketing campaign designed to reach people who had never watched the series before.

“This is part of our attempt – our passion – to reach a billion people with the authentic Jesus," Jenkins said.

"And to do that, we have to reach new audiences – people who've been sceptical of the show, people who haven't heard about the show, people who are going to now be intrigued and interested in. And to that extent, we're already seeing a tremendous response from some people who previously were not wanting to watch the show."

He continued: "I genuinely ask for your forgiveness.”

"... We should have told you from the beginning of what we were planning to do and that the billboards being defaced were ours."

“But moving forward, we’re extremely excited about this campaign and are already seeing new audiences who previously weren’t interested in the show.”

The Chosen is the first-ever series on the life of Jesus and has over 350 million episode views through its first two seasons.