When Sheila Ducksworth was named president of CBS’ new production partnership with the NAACP back in 2020, one of her first calls was to Michele Val Jean — a longtime writer on such soaps as The Bold and the Beautiful,

That car and the glamorous woman behind the wheel are driving into TV history on Monday as CBS begins airing the first Black-led daytime soap opera — and the first new network soap since “Passions” premiered in 1999.

Tunie, whom fans will recognize from her years on “Law & Order: SVU,” has returned to her soap opera roots in CBS’s “Beyond the Gates,” the first daytime serial centered on a Black family in the history of U.

Soap operas, or melodramas with massive ensemble casts, have been a staple in popular culture for nearly a century. Though long-running soaps like “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “General Hospital” have dominated day-time television for decades,

Generations after "Generations," CBS launches the first-ever predominantly Black soap as America grapples with race.

The hour-long show debuts on CBS Monday, focusing on a family living in a wealthy D.C. suburb. "This is not your grandmother's soap opera," says star Tamara Tunie.

It’s premiere week for the first daytime soap opera in 20 years, and it just so happens to be the first, one-hour Black daytime soap as well. This week, Beyond the Gates viewers will meet the core characters and families in the CBS soap opera,