CBS has ordered the daytime soap opera “The Gates” to series, Variety has learned.
The series was first reported to be in development in March. It was developed under CBS Studios’ content partnership with the NAACP. The official description of the series states, “‘The Gates’ follows the lives of a wealthy Black family in a posh, gated community.”
Michele Val Jean will serve as writer, showrunner, and executive producer. Val Jean has been a writer for “The Bold and the Beautiful” since 2012 and has also written for shows like “General Hospital” and “Santa Barbara.” She has written more than 2,000 episodes of daytime television to date. Sheila Ducksworth, Leon Russell, Derrick Johnson and Kimberly Doebereiner will executive produce. The CBS Studios/NAACP venture will produce in partnership with P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble.
The show is slated to debut in January 2025, though an exact date and timeslot will be announced at a later date. Interestingly, CBS recently announced that its daytime talk show “The Talk” will end in December after 15 seasons, but again, there is no assurance that “The Gates” will take over its slot at CBS.
With the series order, this will be one of the first new American daytime soap operas in decades. Very few new daytime soaps get made these days, with networks relying on long-running series like “The Young and the Restless,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of Our Lives,” and “General Hospital.” “Days of Our Lives,” however, now airs on the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock.
(Pictured: Sheila Ducksworth, left; Michele Val Jean, right)
Source Agencies
