*We reported that CBS is developing “The Gates,” a soap opera about a wealthy Black family living in a posh, gated community.
George Cheeks, CEO of CBS and chief content officer for news and sports at Paramount+, recently unveiled the genesis of “The Gates” and the team behind the series.
The new soap will be a collaborative effort between CBS Studios/NAACP production venture and P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble. Emmy-winner Michele Val Jean will pen the series and assume the role of showrunner. Jean has worked on over 2,000 episodes of daytime TV.
Cheeks told Vulture that “The Gates” is being developed with Sheila Ducksworth, president of the CBS/NAACP Production Venture, which develops content for the CBS Television Network and increases the visibility of Black artists.
“When we hired Sheila Ducksworth to run the NAACP venture, she and I had multiple meetings talking about what different genres she was going to lean into, and we talked a lot about daytime,” Cheeks explained.
“One of the things that the data made very clear to both of us is that daytime soap operas over index with Black women, and yet when you look at soap operas, it’s usually sort of a white-led family with supporting characters that reflect more of our society,” Cheeks continued. “So we just thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to flip that and make the core anchor family a Black family, and then make the other characters reflect more the broader scope of society?”
Cheeks credits Sheila for bringing award-winning writer Michele Val Jean onto the project.
“[Sheila] found this great writer, Michele Val Jean, who’s been in the soap opera space for 30 years. She came up with a pitch, and we loved it. We brought Procter & Gamble into it as well, because if there were going to be [product] integrations, we could do it more holistically and organically. All of that is to say, we did a lot of work on the front end to put this together. So while yes, it’s development, it’s accelerated development.”
Cheeks couldn’t provide further details on the expected air date for the show.
“There hasn’t been a new soap opera launch since I can’t even begin to tell you when. But we have great success with ‘Bold and the Beautiful’ and ‘Young and the Restless,’ and so we think we’re the right folks to be launching a new soap. I wish I could tell you more about exact timing, but we’re so focused on getting it right, and that will dictate when we’re ready to launch it.”
READ MORE: CBS Breaks Ground with First Black Daytime Soap Opera in Over Three Decades
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