Yahoo Lifestyle Procter & Gamble Works Up New Lather for Soap Operas With ‘Beyond the Gates’
If one of the newest products from consumer-goods giant Procter & Gamble reminds you of something the company made in the 1960s, 70s or 80s, well, there’s good reason.
When “Beyond the Gates” debuts Monday afternoon on CBS, it will mark a return by the company, one of the world’s biggest makers of household staples such as laundry detergent, deodorant and floor cleaner, to the world of soap operas. In a different era, Procter was a producer of some of the genre’s longest-running examples, including “Guiding Light” and “As the World Turns,” and they were as important to Procter as Mr. Clean, Pampers and Tide. P&G is teaming up with a joint venture between CBS and the NAACP to produce the show.
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“Gates” centers on members of the fictional Dupree family, who live in an affluent community outside the nation’s capital. Its launch marks the arrival of the first soap opera to feature a predominantly Black cast since the short-lived “Generations” appeared on NBC in 1989, and the first new traditional soap introduced on broadcast TV since “Passions” debuted on the same network a decade later.
Such twists are what Sheila Ducksworth, an executive producer of “Gates” and president of the venture between CBS Studios and the NAACP, hopes will spur a new generation of viewers to make soaps a regular habit, something more people no longer do. She recalls getting into the programs when she was ten years old, then keeping up with them each weekday at college at a Yale University hang-out, the Durfee Sweet Shoppe. In most soaps, she says, characters from diverse backgrounds number only a small handful among the cast and by and large are on the periphery.” Now, she says, “Gates” will feature a cast that is “more reflective of the society we all live in” and is grounded in an actual group of tony, gated enclaves that lie outside Washington D.C.
Still, the soap opera continues to fall out of favor on TV. In 2022, NBC moved the long running “Days of Our Lives” to its Peacock streaming service. ABC is down to just one soap opera, the venerable “General Hospital.” CBS still airs “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” but many standards of the genre, including P&G’s “Guiding Light” were cast off many years ago. TV networks have found viewers are less centered around a daytime TV schedule, and as a result, aren’t forming the soap habit that their grandparents or parents did at a younger age. Besides, media executives know they can replace pricey daytime scripted shows, syndicated series and soaps with lower-cost news programming.
“Only the special soaps are going to survive,” said Leslie Moonves, the former head of CBS in 2009, when the network canceled “As the World Turns” after more than half a century on air. “It’s certainly the end of the client-owned soap”, he told The New York Times. “All good things come to an end, whether it’s after 72 years or 54 years or 10 years. It’s a different time and a different business.”
Nearly two decades later, has the business changed again? That’s what the “Gates” builders hope.
Soaps never went away, argues George Cheeks, the co-CEO of CBS parent Paramount Global. Viewers still like high drama on Bravo’s “Real Housewives” series and in many other programs. A new daytime soap, he says, will “appeal to the core CBS audience,” but “can find a younger, unduplicated” fan base in streaming. Research shows “how much these soap operas over index with Black women,” he says. “That’s an underserved audience. There’s a business opportunity here.” Indeed, CBS canceled its afternoon roundtable program, “The Talk,” to make room on its schedule for “Gates” — a reversal of current TV trends.
Procter & Gamble sees an opportunity to tout products to a group of viewers who are not always represented in TV programs. Plans are already in the works to have “Gates” characters use Tide detergent and Febreze air freshener during several episodes, says Kimberly Doebereiner, an executive producer of “Gates” and head of P&G Studios, and more product cameos could be on the way.
“We all want this to succeed as an outstanding piece of drama and content. That’s our first priority,” she says., And if that goal is met, the company can weave its products into examples of everyday use on the show. “We have families with kids. They have to do laundry. There’s one time when one of the women is throwing a party and Febreze is going to help set the stage with the scent.” Rather than forcing products into the plots, she says, “It’s actually just authentic use of our products where they matter, showing performance in the daily lives of our consumers.” P&G gets “first look” to determine if it wants to weave its products into the show, says Cheeks.
“Gates” opens as more advertisers are trying to be more a part of the content that brings viewers to their favorite screen, rather than the old-school commercials that interrupt it. That may mean teaming up with the Lifetime cable network to produce a 15-minute vignette that has all the hallmarks of one of the outlet’s sudsy romance movies, yet is meant to promote visits to the Chili’s restaurant chain and trying its signature margaritas. Or it may result in a move to create ads that play off the content of specific programs, as some markets have done in recent months with shows such as “Yellowstone” or “Saturday Night Live.”
That may have driven P&G to get back into the content game. After the cancellation of its CBS soap operas, says Doebereiner, the company asked if it really needed to be in the business of producing TV programs. These days, “our focus is not ‘Are we a producer of TV?’ Our focus is how we partner to be part of cultural conversations.” P&G may have some things to say about casting and storylines for “Gates,” she says, but it’s more likely to focus on finding authentic methods of pitching its products to viewers without getting in the way of the entertainment.
Having actual, well-known goods like hair-care products and floor cleaner on sets can only help the production, says Duckworth: “It was important that we feel not just current, but that we also were really real as well.” Judging whether Procter & Gamble’s help makes for good — as well as economically feasible — TV may well be one of “Beyond the Gates” most intriguing storylines.
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