Sheila Ducksworth has been obsessed with soap operas since she was 10-years-old. What she wasn’t obsessed with, however, was how the soaps never seemed to show her people who looked like her.

Ducksworth said the soap opera “Beyond the Gates” is the show she has been waiting decades to help bring to life. The executive producer of “Beyond the Gates” and president of the CBS Studios/NAACP Venture told BET exclusively that the historic Black soap opera has been a long time coming, especially because of that feeling when she watched soaps as a little girl. “When I was 10, I was watching. I was a big, avid soap opera watcher, and did not see an inclusivity that I really felt like the genre and other things, you know, also deserved,” Ducksworth said. “You didn’t see a real reflection of people that really exist.”

This is why “Beyond the Gates” matters to so many. The Dupree family is an opulent Black family just outside of Washington, D.C., living in a gated community. When Ducksworth first pitched the show, she did so knowing these Black families exist and have for decades. “We’ve never seen a depiction of that on scripted television, not in primetime or daytime drama.”

That commitment to authenticity is part of why “Beyond the Gates’” upcoming cotillion arc matters so much. Over three episodes, the Dupree family will take viewers through a “get ready with me” style episode, the cotillion ceremony itself, and the crowning moment — with plenty of drama in between. For the executive producer, the tradition was a natural fit for a family she describes as “black royalty incarnate.”

She said that the cotillion has long represented legacy, history, and culture in Black communities. “It really is important, as I said, that this show speaks with authenticity,” she said. ”Obviously, the soap is fiction, but why not actually put a spotlight on and support the things that are really true and authentic to this culture?”

Ducksworth was careful to note that these ceremonies are not just about gowns and pageantry. “Cotillion is a right of passage,” she said. “It speaks to the resilience of a culture.” She also pointed out that it is not new at all and it has “been a thing” for over a century; the first one was in 19th-century New Orleans. That history helped shape the story’s emotional weight and its visual polish.

The arc also gives “Beyond the Gates” a chance to do what Ducksworth says the show does best: reflect multiple slices of life. “We wanted to make sure that we had representation across gender and representation across age,” she said, adding that the series includes Black, white, and Latina characters, as well as both sides of the economic divide. The world of the Duprees may be aspirational, but Ducksworth insists it still feels grounded because the show goes so far to make the details real.

She pointed to the writing team’s process as proof. The show’s creators and writers review about 600 pages of material each week, and the production tracks everything from scripts to cuts to set details. That includes the family’s Banneker (Howard) University history, the trophies in the living room, and even a lion (Banneker’s mascot) door knocker on the Dupree house. “There’s a lot of attention to detail in the show to illuminate the culture,” Ducksworth said.

That same care extends to how the cotillion is presented in the show. The “get ready with me” episode brings the event into the social media era while preserving its deeper meaning. Ducksworth said the team wanted the arc to feel modern without losing the tradition’s significance. “We wanted to bring that home,” she said. “We wanted to show what all of that would look like.”

The hope is that viewers are left with “A real sense of community, a real sense of sisterhood and of brotherhood, a real sense of family, a real sense of heritage, a real sense of culture,” Ducksworth said.

And if “Beyond the Gates” continues to put a spotlight on Black life with style, specificity, and care — that mission should keep shining long after the cotillion episodes. Ducksworth also hopes the show continues like the ones before it (“The Bold & The Beautiful,” “The Young & The Restless”). “What we're looking to do…is something that is history-making, that's groundbreaking, and revolutionary, and that will last for a hundred plus years! Because why not?” she said.