Black Daytime Soap Opera ‘The Gates’ Coming To CBS
Deadline first mentioned the news that CBS has ordered a new soap opera called The Gates. According to a news release, the new series will premiere in January 2025 on CBS. The specific time period, launch date and other series details will be announced at a later date.
What we know about the new soap opera “The Gates”
The series will follow the lives of a wealthy Black family in a “posh, gated community.” Michele Val Jean, who has written more than 2,000 episodes of daytime dramas and won multiple Daytime Emmy and WGA Awards for her work on THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL and General Hospital, will serve as writer and showrunner. Val Jean will also be an executive producer alongside Sheila Ducksworth, Leon Russell, Derrick Johnson, and Kimberly Doebereiner.
The Gates was developed from the joint venture between CBS Studios and the NAACP. The series will be produced by the CBS Studios/NAACP venture in partnership with P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble.
“The Gates will be everything we love about daytime drama, from a new and fresh perspective,” said Ducksworth as reported by Deadline. “This series will salute an audience that has been traditionally underserved, with the potential to be a groundbreaking moment for broadcast television. With multi-dimensional characters, juicy storylines, and Black culture front and center, The Gates will have impactful representation, one of the key touchstones of the venture.”
Deadline also pointed out that it’s been years since one of the broadcast networks launched a new daytime soap opera. “There are only three still existence between CBS and ABC — B&B and The Young and the Restless on CBS, and General Hospital on ABC,” they said. They mentioned that CBS continues to rank No. 1 in daytime with its dramas but all three of the soaps are down in the key demos versus last year. Days of Our Lives is now streaming on Peacock. Since having moved from NBC to the platform in 2022.
Will this be the first Black soap opera?
You may be wondering if this is the first of its kind. But some people took to Reddit to share their excitement and reminisce about Black soaps they used to enjoy. “I haven’t watched the stories in a long time. The only Black centered soap I can remember was Generations. I never got into it and it didn’t last long,” someone shared. Generations premiered in 1989 on NBC and reportedly was the first soap opera that featured people of color as the main characters. Another person mentioned how you could find Black soaps on free networks like Pluto TV. They could be referring to the show Saints & Sinners that aired from 2016 to 2023.
The Gates will premiere on CBS in January 2025.
