Watching Beyond The Gates: CBS's new soap

[tommie]

CBS Developing New Daytime Soap About Wealthy Black Family

For the first time in decades, a new daytime soap opera may be arriving on the scene at CBS -- get details

tvline.com

Titled The Gates, the potential series will be shepherded by veteran soap scribe Michele Val Jean, whose credits include General Hospital, B&B and Santa Barbara. Val Jean also served as a script writer on daytime’s first Black family-focused soap, Generations, which aired on NBC from 1989-1991.



If The Gates comes to fruition, it would mark broadcast television’s first new daytime soap opera since the launch of NBC’s now-defunct Passions 25 years ago.

“The Gates will be everything we love about daytime drama, from a new and fresh perspective,” said Gates EP Sheila Ducksworth, who also serves as president of CBS Studios’ NAACP venture. “This series will salute an audience that has been traditionally underserved, with the potential to be a groundbreaking moment for broadcast television. With multi-dimensional characters, juicy storylines and Black culture front and center, The Gates will have impactful representation, one of the key touchstones of the venture.”

I'm stunned. I thought daytime soaps were dead - but then again, it hasn't been ordered to series yet.

 

[Rove]

Won't get off the ground and if it does it will fail.

 

[Monzo]

I am also very surprised by this news. Of course, the question that immediately arises for me is what should be replaced with the new soap: B&B or The Talk? In any case, I expect that the new soap would have Y&R as lead-in, otherwise it won't work.

Recently while watching Y&R I thought that the everyday problems don't work there, but I would like to see something like that in a new soap. Unfortunately, The Gates sounds a lot like a BET soap from the description. I would have liked the new soap to be a little more down to earth.

 

[Daniel Avery]

the question that immediately arises for me is what should be replaced with the new soap: B&B or The Talk?

While Y&R was given a very generous four-year renewal by CBS, B&B's old licensing agreement was quietly given a one-year extension. Part of me thinks that if things were a-okay at CBS Daytime, they would have announced similar new deals for both--and likely the same length of time. From what I can see, B&B's overseas strength would make it harder to cancel it entirely--they might move it to streaming exclusively. Of course ideally there would not be a cancellation--they'd just add this new show (if it actually comes to fruition) to their daytime schedule and work really hard to get the affiliates to make room. Talk shows are not the financial bonanza they once were, so there might be a path for CBS to make this new show more attractive than syndicated fare.

Michele ValJean is a well-regarded name in the industry, so they'd get their money's worth even if it only ends up as a development deal that isn't picked up (similar to that "Pine Valley" project that quietly died on the vine). Networks have development $$$ just sitting around and might use some of it to spread around even if they're not convinced any "real" programs come from it. I will add that MVJ is in her mid-70s so I doubt she would continue with this project beyond the development phase. But hey, she'll get paid either way.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

When was the last time there was even a discussion about a new daytime soap being developed? It must be as far back as the 00’s, if not the 90’s?

I’d be all for this as I’d love to have a current US soap on my watchlist (presuming it be a 22 minute offering as opposed to hour a day.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The last new soap was Passions, which premiered in 1999. And we all know how that turned out:

 

[Emelee]

I really hope it works out, but I'm not expecting it to.

 

[tommie]

When was the last time there was even a discussion about a new daytime soap being developed? It must be as far back as the 00’s, if not the 90’s?

Literally Passions in '99. I guess one could count Spyder Games in 2001, but that was always meant to work in a telenovela-ish serial format of seasons from my understanding (and was on MTV of course).

I don't think this is as much of a long-shot that people think. The Talk has been doing badly and P&G (!!!) getting involved with this makes me think they see opportunities in this. I think the covid pandemic, the strikes and failures of streaming platforms might have something to do with this - ultimately, soaps is a stable income, year-round income. Depending on how you schedule them, they might last you through a pandemic (like DAYS did), or at least have a very short turn-around. They aren't affected by strikes and since this will be owned by CBS it's stable income.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I’d be surprised if this works in this day and age. It’s been 25 years since we got a new daytime show and I think the floating dumpster inferno above kind of sums up why.

Still, we never really do know how these things will go. Sometimes the shows we think are going to smash it end up falling by the wayside rather quickly and quite often the opposite is true as well. If the audience is still there for this, they’ll find it. I’m doubtful it makes it very far though.

 

[Monzo]

The idea of a black family at the center of a daily soap is actually pretty smart, because CBS certainly knows how high the viewership of people of color is for Y&R and B&B, and I suspect it's above average. In addition, cable television proves that programs with people of color as the focus do not lose viewers as quickly as many other programs. Sistas was always a successful soap for BET, but was not one of the most successful shows on cable TV. Things have changed and now Sistas is one of the most watched scripted shows on cable TV despite losing viewers. So there is a market for TV series with black main casts.

Daytime soaps is the only genre from US TV that I find weaker compared to European TV. I don't understand why daily soaps from Europe, which probably have a smaller budget than American ones, still look better and offer plenty of outdoor scenes. In Central Europe, the daily soap genre is not over anyway. Three new daily soaps have launched in France in the last ten years, all of which are successful. On German TV, if you don't get anywhere with cheap productions in the daytime program, you try a new daily soap at some point, most of the time it doesn't work, but at least channels still try.

 

[Toni]

CBS Developing New Daytime Soap About Wealthy Black Family

For the first time in decades, a new daytime soap opera may be arriving on the scene at CBS -- get details

tvline.com

I'm stunned. I thought daytime soaps were dead - but then again, it hasn't been ordered to series yet.

I just love the name of the author. It´s a combo of Michele (Lee), Val and Jean (Hackney). Jill Bennett, is that you?

 

[Gabriele]

Purtroppo le soap opera stanno morendo

 

[Daniel Avery]

I would not say they're "dying" exactly, but they're certainly not "in demand" as they once were. I don't see them ever having the sort of popularity they did in the 1980s, at least not in their current form, and this project doesn't sound (so far) like they're attempting to re-invent the wheel. There will always be some interest in this type of storytelling...it's just hard to predict the level of interest. We've gone over a decade without another cancellation, which gives an idea that things have stabilized.

Another surprising piece of news (reported by Variety in their story about this project) is that Procter and Gamble, of all people, is involved. They even cite "P&G Studios" as a partner. I had no idea there even WAS a P&G Studios, given how eager they were to get out of the soap opera biz in the 2000s. Back then they spun off their TV arm in the form of a company called Telenext Media, but apparently they did not leave the TV business entirely (and they changed the name back). So they've obviously had some change of heart. It's been 25 years and I still have not forgiven them for cancelling Another World, but that's for me and my shrink to work out.

 

[Monzo]

I think with good promo the launch could be successful, but it needs a really good plot to keep the audience sticking around, but what could that be? One of the sons returns home with his new wife, like in the pilots of Dallas and The Colbys. Or a murder mystery, although I don't necessarily hope so because it might get too complicated.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I think with good promo the launch could be successful, but it needs a really good plot to keep the audience sticking around, but what could that be? One of the sons returns home with his new wife, like in the pilots of Dallas and The Colbys. Or a murder mystery, although I don't necessarily hope so because it might get too complicated.

I’m not sure what the US soaps are like these days but the UK soaps are so driven by crime, I’d like to see something a bit less trigger happy in this new soap. Something like a character from the past returning to throw a cat among the pigeons. As it’s about a wealthy family, I’m sure there’s plenty of high stakes business drama that can be mined from the premise. The death of the head of the family leading to the black sheep returning to stake their claim on the inheritance, much to the chagrin of the siblings who stayed around and helped build the empire. I know it’s been done before but I’d personally prefer that to a whodunnit.

 

[tommie]

So they've obviously had some change of heart.

I think there's a lot of things at play here - with the pandemic, the strikes and streaming collapse happening pretty much back-to-back has probably gotten TPTB to re-evaluate the soap opera format. With prime time ratings getting lower and daytime sort of levelling out I think it might make sense for them to go back and try to get profit off daytime soaps. Talk shows and the like might be cheap, but at the same time it has no value in streaming - no one's really sitting around and watching old The Talk episodes. Streaming shows in general have a very bloated budget, while shows like Days of our Lives produces 260 episodes a year for a fraction of the cost.

Add that African-American viewers are some of the most loyal to broadcast television at this point, but at the same time it's an audience that's hard to monetize in prime time because it's an audience that has lower than average income so advertisers aren't willing to pay premium. That's not an issue with daytime which has a different advertising profile.

 

[AndyB2008]

I am also very surprised by this news. Of course, the question that immediately arises for me is what should be replaced with the new soap: B&B or The Talk? In any case, I expect that the new soap would have Y&R as lead-in, otherwise it won't work.

Recently while watching Y&R I thought that the everyday problems don't work there, but I would like to see something like that in a new soap. Unfortunately, The Gates sounds a lot like a BET soap from the description. I would have liked the new soap to be a little more down to earth.

The last time this was attempted was with Generations, and that suffered from a few factors -NBC was in dire straits in daytime, ratings wise, it was up against Y&R, then the No.1 soap, and I believe also local news took priority, it was a half hour while the majority of soaps were an hour, and the premise was poor - family with an ice cream parlour, when something like a hip hop record label or TV\radio station would have been better to provide drama.

The debut episode didn't help matters.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The death of the head of the family leading to the black sheep returning to stake their claim on the inheritance, much to the chagrin of the siblings who stayed around and helped build the empire. I know it’s been done before but I’d personally prefer that to a whodunnit.

Another World began with the death of the Matthews family patriarch. The show's creator, Irna Phillips, stated in many interviews afterward that this was a mistake, since viewers "met" the characters in a downbeat setting and viewers had no motivation to feel sorry for these people they did not even know yet. I can see how Phillips imagined it to be a good idea, since all the family was gathered for the funeral and the viewers could learn all the characters' relationships. But it would indeed be a "downer". It would feel a bit like I was intruding on an intimate family tragedy.

I’m not sure what the US soaps are like these days but the UK soaps are so driven by crime, I’d like to see something a bit less trigger happy in this new soap

I'm afraid the US soaps do fall back on crime (and criminals) an awful lot these days. GH has been dominated by mobsters and organized crime plots for thirty years!
Y&R went for about 40 years avoiding the cops-and-crime trap---there were periods of time where there wasn't even a police officer in the cast!---but in recent years they've built their police station set, added their own cop characters, etc. just like everybody else.

Unfortunately I think the crime/cops element will have to be included in some capacity in this new show. One of the reasons Generations failed was because its writers wanted to write a softer, less gritty (traditional) soap opera to "set themselves apart"---but all that did was make the show deadly boring at times. Every time GH tries to write itself away from all the mob stuff, the network tends to get nervous; the minute the ratings drift downward, the network orders them to "go back to what works" (or so they think).

As much as it is claimed that viewers want more upbeat and positive, well-written soaps with "heart," it's rare that such an effort becomes a ratings winner against flashy and trashy stuff that is much easier to write and produce. And now more than ever, the soaps that remain have to fight for every possible viewer.

 

[AndyB2008]

Another World began with the death of the Matthews family patriarch. The show's creator, Irna Phillips, stated in many interviews afterward that this was a mistake, since viewers "met" the characters in a downbeat setting and viewers had no motivation to feel sorry for these people they did not even know yet. I can see how Phillips imagined it to be a good idea, since all the family was gathered for the funeral and the viewers could learn all the characters' relationships. But it would indeed be a "downer". It would feel a bit like I was intruding on an intimate family tragedy.

I'm afraid the US soaps do fall back on crime (and criminals) an awful lot these days. GH has been dominated by mobsters and organized crime plots for thirty years!
Y&R went for about 40 years avoiding the cops-and-crime trap---there were periods of time where there wasn't even a police officer in the cast!---but in recent years they've built their police station set, added their own cop characters, etc. just like everybody else.

Unfortunately I think the crime/cops element will have to be included in some capacity in this new show. One of the reasons Generations failed was because its writers wanted to write a softer, less gritty (traditional) soap opera to "set themselves apart"---but all that did was make the show deadly boring at times. Every time GH tries to write itself away from all the mob stuff, the network tends to get nervous; the minute the ratings drift downward, the network orders them to "go back to what works" (or so they think).

As much as it is claimed that viewers want more upbeat and positive, well-written soaps with "heart," it's rare that such an effort becomes a ratings winner against flashy and trashy stuff that is much easier to write and produce. And now more than ever, the soaps that remain have to fight for every possible viewer.

Ref the last part, Jerry Springer's talk show (not a soap) initially was a positive love and warmth type show.

Ratings however were poor and the plug was almost pulled. Hence the slide into the show it later became in order to get viewers watching.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

The debut episode didn't help matters.

Was Generations the one that started with a kind of “false” opening? Where we were seeing a “traditional” soap opera play out where a character falls down the stairs and gets amnesia or something similarly stereotypically soapy and then it pulls back and we see that it’s a Generations character watching a soap opera on television (and I think dismissing it).

Another World began with the death of the Matthews family patriarch. The show's creator, Irna Phillips, stated in many interviews afterward that this was a mistake, since viewers "met" the characters in a downbeat setting and viewers had no motivation to feel sorry for these people they did not even know yet. I can see how Phillips imagined it to be a good idea, since all the family was gathered for the funeral and the viewers could learn all the characters' relationships. But it would indeed be a "downer". It would feel a bit like I was intruding on an intimate family tragedy.

When you see it laid out like that, it makes perfect sense to avoid that setting.