• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, February 24, 2025

For network TV, “Beyond the Gates” is the first new afternoon soap opera since the debut of “Passions” on NBC 26 years ago in 1999.

For Procter & Gamble, “Beyond the Gates” is the company’s first new soap since “As the World Turns” ended its 54-year run on CBS in 2010. 

For CBS, “Beyond the Gates” represents its first new soap since the launch of “The Bold and the Beautiful” in 1987.

Premiering Monday, “Beyond the Gates” will take its place alongside CBS’s two other soaps -- the one-hour “Young and the Restless” from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern, and the half-hour “Bold and the Beautiful” from 1:30 to 2.

“Beyond the Gates” then takes up residence for the 2-3 p.m. hour, giving CBS two-and-a-half hours of daytime soaps -- something that no other legacy network is doing.

Although the time slot for “Beyond the Gates” is an hour, each episode is 37 minutes, which means 23 minutes per show will be given over to commercials.

In addition to the two still running on CBS, only one other soap survives today on network television -- “General Hospital” on ABC. 

NBC’s last soap was “Days of Our Lives,” but it was moved exclusively to Peacock in 2022.

While it may seem as if CBS is merely breaking old ground with its new soap, it is actually plowing new fields too.

“Beyond the Gates” centers on a gated community in a Maryland suburb of Washington populated by wealthy African Americans.

The show is only the second black-oriented daytime soap in the history of television. The last one was “Generations,” which premiered 36 years ago on NBC, in 1989, and lasted only two years.

The focus of “Beyond the Gates” is on the sprawling Dupree family headed by patriarch Vernon Dupree (Clifton Davis) and matriarch Anita Dupree (Tamara Tunie).

He is a revered hero of the civil rights movement who became a U.S. senator. She is a recording artist and EGOT star (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

Their two grown daughters are Nicole Dupree Richardson (Daphne Duplaix) and Danielle “Dani” Dupree (Karla Mosley, above photo, center).

Nicole and her husband have three children, and Dani has two with now ex-husband Bill Hamilton (Timon Kyle Durett).

In Episode One, which I previewed last week thanks to the generosity of CBS, Dani emerges as the most volatile and unpredictable of the show’s many characters.

She is seething from the betrayal of her husband, who left her for a friend of the family. But her husband and his new love are staying in the community and about to have an extravagant wedding at the community’s central gathering spot for drinks, dinner and gossip -- the country club.

Filmed in Atlanta, “Beyond the Gates” stems from a collaboration between CBS Studios and the NAACP dubbed the CBS Studios/NAACP Venture, led by Sheila Ducksworth in partnership with P&G Studios, CBS said.

The showrunner is soap vet Michele Val Jean, a top writer and producer of network soaps who has won seven Daytime Emmys for her work.

For P&G, “Beyond the Gates” represents a return to a world it knows well. The company’s sponsorship of soap operas goes back to the radio era. 

The company’s decades-long commitment to soaps is literally the reason why these serialized dramas came to be known as “soap” operas in the first place.

After I was finished watching Episode One of “Beyond the Gates,” I came away thoroughly satisfied. I felt I had just watched something special and new, and had a great time doing it.

“Beyond the Gates” premieres on Monday (February 24) at 2 p.m. Eastern on CBS.