The Beyond the Gates premiere is a little over a month away, and the hype is starting to build steam. Over the weekend, CBS Sunday Morning featured a segment focusing on the upcoming CBS soap opera. Thanks to correspondent Nancy Giles, we saw the cast, heard from the show’s executive producers, Sheila Ducksworth and Michele Val Jean, and learned a little more about this groundbreaking daytime drama.
What We Learned
- Executive Producer Sheila Ducksworth, who is also the president of this CBS/NAACP production, teased what viewers will get to see. She hinted at “plenty of love triangles, plenty of people you love, love to hate” and added that “it’s really juicy.”
- When Tamara Tunie (Anita Dupree) and Clifton Davis (Vernon Dupree) give Giles the set tour, they take the correspondent to Orphey Gene’s, the diner that’s the gathering place “for everybody in every economic bracket in the show” goes to. “This is kind of the soul and the heartbeat of it,” revealed Tunie.
- Meanwhile, Davis hints at what to expect from the Duprees. He considers the family strong. However, “that doesn’t mean we don’t lose our minds along the way.”
- Daphnée Duplaix explains that while viewers will see plenty of family dysfunction, they will also see “a healthy family foundation, love, and respect.”
- It takes a crew of over 200 working around the clock to create this drama.
READ THIS: Meet BTG’s Dupree family here.
Four Behind-the-Scenes Forces
Featured in the CBS Sunday Morning segment are four forces that are key to creating the magic of daytime TV.
- Bruton Jones is the production designer on the set. His previous credits include Hulu’s legal drama Reasonable Doubt, NBC’s late-great comedy Grand Crew, Netflix’s Raising Dion, and OWN’s Greenleaf. Jones was also the Art Director of the 1998 blockbuster Armageddon.
- Jones oversaw the creation of 27 sets that will help capture the families living out their best and most dramatic lives on BTG. The Duprees home even has an elevator.
- Jeresa Featherstone is BTG’s costume designer — she and her group are responsible for what promises to be the show’s gorgeous wardrobe. Featherstone won Daytime Creative Arts Emmys for her work on The Bold and the Beautiful in 2023 and 2024.
- Meanwhile, Wankaya Hinkson heads up the hair department, while Stevie Martin leads the makeup department. Together, they provide their considerable expertise to make a gorgeous cast even more gorgeous.
- Hinkson’s credits include HBO’s Ballers, OWN’s Ambitions, Paramount+’s Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and Apple TV+’s Truth Be Told season three.
- As for Martin, her previous credits include Creed III, Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias, Dear Evan Hansen, and Starz’s P-Valley.
Beyond the Gates premieres on CBS on February 24, 2025, at 2 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. CT. It will also stream on Paramount+. Take a look at the cast, crew, and the beautiful sets for yourself below:
Share this: