The countdown to The Gates is on. The first broadcast soap to debut since 1999 comes to CBS at the start of 2025, and everything seems to be coming together wonderfully, according to Head Writer and Executive Producer Michele Val Jean.
"You guys! The team for #TheGates is coming together and it's 🔥🔥🔥," Val Jean tweeted in the early morning hours of June 13. "I couldn't be happier. Exciting announcements coming soon. Stay tuned!"
You guys! The team for #TheGates is coming together and it's 🔥🔥🔥. I couldn't be happier. Exciting announcements coming soon. Stay tuned!
- Michele Val Jean (@MicheleValJean) June 13, 2024
The daytime world rejoiced in March of this year when CBS first announced it was partnering with the NAACP and Procter & Gamble Productions to develop a brand-new hour-long soap opera.
At one time, Procter & Gamble owned and produced multiple soap operas, including Another World, As the World Turns, Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, and Edge of Night. The last P&G soaps, Guiding Light and As the World Turns, were canceled in 2009 and 2010, respectively. At the time, it seemed P&G was out of the soap business for good.
In March, CBS President George Cheeks told Vulture that the idea to produce a program with the NAACP came first, and the decision to make the program a soap came second. After doing research, Cheeks admitted that developing a daytime drama seemed logical, especially one that would revolve around a Black core family.
"One of the things that the data made very clear to both of us is that daytime soap operas over-index with Black women, and yet when you look at soap operas, it's usually sort of a white-led family with supporting characters that reflect more of our society," Cheeks said. "So we just thought, wouldn't it be interesting to flip that and make the core anchor family a Black family, and then make the other characters reflect more the broader scope of society?"
Fans and media outlets immediately began wishful casting the soap. That includes Soap Central, which suggested Mishael Morgan (ex-Hilary Curtis/Amanda Sinclair, The Young and the Restless), Debi Morgan (ex-Angie Baxter Hubbard, All My Children), and Victoria Rowell (ex-Drucilla Winters, Y&R).
While CBS has not yet announced an official time slot for The Gates, the last episode of the talk show The Talk airs in December, just before The Gates is set to debut.
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