CBS continues to generate publicity for its upcoming new daytime drama “Beyond The Gates,” the first Black-oriented network daytime drama in decades. They announced last Friday 10 new cast members for the program, all of them with extensive experience either in television, film or in theatrical productions. The new members are: Brandon Claybon (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “General Hospital”), Timon Durrett (“Queen Sugar,” “Stuck With You”), Sean Freeman (“Finding Happy,” “Tales”), Marquita Goings (“Zatima,” “Woke”), Maurice Johnson (“Chicago Fire,” “To Catch a Killer”), Trisha Mann-Grant (“The Family Business,” “A Royal Christmas Surprise”), RhonniRose Mantilla (Broadway’s “Harmony the Musical”), Ambyr Michelle (“Snowfall,” “The Runarounds”), Colby Muhammad (Broadway’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”), and Arielle Prepetit (“Found,” “BMF”).
Full descriptions of their characters can be found online at Variety.com and other entertainment websites. These 10 additions join previously announced cast members Tamara Tunie, Daphnee Duplaix, and Karla Mosley. “Beyond the Gates” was originally announced as a series at CBS back in April. The show was developed under CBS Studios’ content partnership with the NAACP. The show will begin production in November, and will premiere in early 2025.
The show is debuting at a time when the future of daytime dramas, more popularly known as “soap operas,” is very much in doubt. There are only three of them still going on broadcast television, two of them (“The Young and the Restless,” “The Bold & The Beautiful”) on CBS and the other on ABC (“General Hospital.”) NBC shifted its last remaining daytime drama “Days of Our Lives” to its streaming service Peacock last year, but continue to produce new episodes.
“Beyond The Gates” has already had a title change (originally called “The Gates”), but will be written by a longtime daytime drama stalwart Michele Val Jean. Val Jean is also serving as executive producer and showrunner, and has has written more than 2,000 episodes of daytime television. She has won multiple Daytime Emmy awards for her work on “The Bold & The Beautiful” and “General Hospital.” The last daytime drama featuring an all-Black family at the core was “Generations.” It aired on NBC in 1989 and ended in 1991.
The key question for “Beyond The Gates” will be how many CBS affiliated stations pick it up, and what time those who do will air it. “The Talk,” the network’s long-running daytime talk program, ends in December and there’s speculation that “Beyond The Gates” will inherit that time slot (“The Talk” currently airs locally on WTVF-5 weekdays at 1 p.m.)
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