CBS announced the first three new cast members of its upcoming daytime soap opera “Beyond the Gates,” which will commence production in Atlanta beginning this fall.
Announced in February, the project makes history as the first Black one-hour daytime drama to air on television, according to a Thursday press release.
Previously given the working title “The Gates,” the daytime soap takes place in a fictional Maryland suburb outside of Washington, which serves a hub of a string of affluent African American families.
Home to “winding tree-lined streets and luxurious mansions,” most of the drama and conflicts are centered around the Duprees, a “powerful and prestigious multi-generational family that is the very definition of Black royalty.”
But outside of their prestigious social class and beautiful estate, according to the press release, are secrets that are just waiting to be discovered.
Former “As the World Turns” cast member Tamara Tunie stars as Anita Dupree, a former singer and the central family’s matriarch who’s raised two daughters with her retired senator husband. While glamourous, beneath her beauty lies “a fierceness she gained from her humble beginnings in Chicago.”
Actress Daphnée Duplaix (“One Life to Live,” “Passions”) takes on the role of Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson, eldest daughter of Anita and her husband. A successful philanthropist and psychiatrist, the character is described as being a pillar of “warmth, empathy and compassion,” with a life that seems perfect to many… from the outside.
Rounding out the three talents is Karla Mosley of “The Bold and the Beautiful” fame. Mosley stars as Dani Dupree, the younger daughter of The Duprees who has gone from being a former high-working model turned momager who “always marched to the beat of her own drum.”
The upcoming series was created by Michele Val Jean, a seven-time Daytime Emmy Award-winning writer who previously worked on the Atlanta-filmed OWN drama “Ambitions” in 2019.
Val Jean will serve as showrunner, head writer and executive producer, with the latter title shared with Daytime soap veterans Robert Guza Jr. and Julie Carruthers, of “General Hospital” and “All My Children” fame respectively.
“Gates” marks the first premiere of a daytime soap opera since NBC’s “Passions” in 1998. It is also the first daytime network soap to center its focus on African American characters since “Generations,” which aired on NBC from 1989 to 1991.
The series is scheduled to be filmed at Assembly Studios in Doraville. Alongside CBS Studios, the groundbreaking project is produced by NAACP Venture, in association with P&G Studios, a division of consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble.
“Gates” will take over the time of the CBS talk show “The Talk,” which will end its run in December of this year after 15 seasons.
