Tamara Tunie, Daphne Duplaix and Karla Mosley are set to lead CBS’ new daytime soap “Beyond the Gates,” with the trio playing prominent members of the Dupree family.
The show comes from daytime O.G. Michele Val Jean, who worked on “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “General Hospital.” It will follow the lives of a wealthy Black family who lives in a luxurious gated community.
Thursday’s news confirms the title — updated from “The Gates” — and sets production for later this fall in Atlanta with a premiere slated for early 2025 (January ’25 was the given date upon the initial greenlight). The program marks the first-ever one-hour Black daytime soap opera and the first new daytime drama to premiere since “Passions” in 1999.
Tunie (“As the World Turns,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) stars as Anita Dupree. CBS describes her as the matriarch of the family, who was a famous singer in her earlier days. She’s worked hard for her success and has raised two daughters with her now-retired senator husband. However, beneath her glitz and glamour is a fierceness she gained from her humble beginnings in Chicago.
As for Duplaix (“One Life to Live”), she plays Anita’s daughter, Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson. CBS describes the character as a highly successful and competitive philanthropist and psychiatrist, who exudes warmth, empathy and compassion. While she has what looks like a perfect life alongside her surgeon husband, things aren’t exactly as they seem.
And Mosley (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) comes in as Anita’s other daughter, Dani Dupree. Her description from CBS details her as former model-turned-momager who ditched her career for love. Growing up the family wild child, she’s always been free-spirited, headstrong and uninhibited.
Here’s the show’s official synopsis: “‘Beyond the Gates’” is set in a leafy Maryland suburb just outside of Washington, D.C., and in one the most affluent African American counties in the United States. Here you’ll find a posh gated community with winding tree-lined streets and luxurious mansions to call home. At the center of this community are the Duprees, a powerful and prestigious multi-generational family that is the very definition of Black royalty. But behind these pristine walls and lush, manicured gardens are juicy secrets and scandals waiting to be uncovered. And those that live outside these gates are watching closely. These are the places where our characters live, love, work and play. Those who have ‘made it’ and those who haven’t are all trying to navigate life … and some with more grace than others.”
“Beyond the Gates” is developed and produced by the CBS Studios/NAACP Venture, led by Sheila Ducksworth, in partnership with P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble.
Val Jean will serve as executive producer and showrunner alongside executive producers Ducksworth, Robert Guza Jr., Julie Carruthers, Leon Russell, Derrick Johnson, Kimberly Doebereiner and Anna Saalfeld.
