It’s been nearly a year since Beyond the Gates premiered and made history as the first new daytime drama in over two decades. Now, on Martin Luther King Day (January 19), instead of airing a new episode, the soap opera’s cast will be looking back at how far the show has already come while looking forward to its future.
Key Takeaways
- What fans can expect from Inside Fairmont Crest
- The trailer for the special
The Beyond the Gates Cast Celebrates Their First Year on Air
When BTG debuted on February 24, 2025, no one knew what to expect. A logline about an affluent Black family living in a Maryland suburb known for its ties to Black wealth and power excited prospective viewers. But it’d been 25 years since a new daytime drama had been launched. Its predecessors have been around so long that the youngest soap opera still airing before BTG was B&B, which premiered in 1987.
The stakes were high. Would BTG find its audience? Would the soap resonate with a generation of viewers unaccustomed to starting a daytime drama from the beginning? Could the show produce new soap fans, people who’d never tuned into series like Y&R, GH, and DAYS? Is there enough appetite for this genre for it to find new life in the 21st century? Well, fast forward a year later, and the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”
Looking Back at What Made BTG a Hit
From the writing to the acting, from the wardrobe to the set design, BTG has won viewers over, securing a second season (which is currently airing) and giving fans hope that they’ll be investing in the goings on in Fairmont Crest for years, perhaps even decades to come. The Monday, January 19 special spotlights the soap’s inaugural season in what star Tamara Tunie (Anita Dupree) describes as “the perfect opportunity for you to familiarize yourself with our characters and the stories we’ve been telling.”
According to CBS, Inside Fairmont Crest is a pulling back of the curtain, which will give fans insight into the soap from the perspective of the actors as “they relive their storylines, including all of season one’s explosive affairs, shocking cons, and family secrets.”
Remember, BTG opened with Dani’s (Karla Mosley) gun-toting spiral over her ex-husband Bill’s (Timon Kyle Durrett) upcoming wedding to Hayley (Marquita Goings), a young woman who’d been friends with their daughter, Naomi (Arielle Prepetit). Boiling in the background was the secret Martin (Brandon Claybon) was hiding from his husband, Smitty (Mike Manning), and Leslie’s (Trisha Mann-Grant) scheme to turn Ted’s (Keith D. Robinson) life upside down using her daughter, Eva (Ambyr Michelle).
So much has happened in the span of a year that this special is coming at just the right time to catch new viewers up with the twists and turns of this soap opera. Watch the promo below for a peek at what’s to come:
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