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Sheila Duckworth
CBS Studios
CBS is developing a soap opera about a wealthy family that could become the first daytime television drama with a predominantly black cast in decades.
The project is titled The doors and follows the life of a wealthy black family living in a posh, gated community.
The show will be produced by a CBS Studios/NAACP production company in association with P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble. The doors will be written by veteran Emmy winner Michele Val Jean (The bold and the beautiful), who will also serve as showrunner. Val Jean has also written more than 2,000 episodes of daytime television.
The last black daytime soap opera was short-lived for NBC Generations, which launched in 1989 as a half-hour drama and was reportedly the first American soap opera to focus on a black family since its inception. Plus, Fox’s hit 2015 drama Empire Some considered it a soap opera, although it was broadcast in prime time.
“The doors It will be everything we love about daytime drama, from a fresh new perspective,” said CBS Studios NAACP President Sheila Ducksworth (pictured above). “This series will greet an audience that has traditionally been underserved and has the potential to be a groundbreaking moment for broadcast television. With multidimensional characters, juicy stories, and black culture front and center, The doors It will have an impactful representation, one of the key pillars of the company. “I am excited to develop this project with CBS and P&G, two of the oldest and most passionate advocates of daytime and broadcast television, and the NAACP, whose long-standing commitment to Black voices and artists is both powerful and inspiring.”
Throwing any new The daytime soap opera would actually break a decades-long streak, as the genre has fallen out of favor due to its declining ratings amid competition from streaming. The last time a broadcaster launched a new soap opera was in 1999 (the NBC channel Passions), while the last new CBS soap opera was The bold and the beautifulwhich debuted in 1987.
Currently, there are only three daytime soap operas left airing: The young and the restless, Bold and beautiful and General Hospital (with days of our lives in peacock). In 2011, ABC made headlines for eliminating two of its long-running soap operas, All my kids and A life to live. Two years later, Prospect Park attempted to relaunch soap operas online. But CBS recently renewed the 51-year-old. The young and the restless for four more years.
Duckworth and Val Jean will executive produce The doors alongside Leon Russell, Derrick Johnson and Kimberly Doebereiner.