BET Plus on March 21 will launch dark comedy Diarra from Detroit, the first scripted series project from the two-year BET Studios venture created in 2021 to develop television series and films targeted to Black viewers.
Diarra From Detroit, executive produced by Kenya Barris and starring series creator Diarra Kilpatrick, David Zayas, Phylicia Rashad and Morris Chestnut, follows a divorcing schoolteacher whose search for a missing man she met on a social media dating site pulls her into a decades-old mystery involving the Detroit underworld, BET Plus said.
BET Studios previously created unscripted sports series Klutch Academy for the BET cable network in 2021. It has also teamed with NBC New Studios and Westbrook Studios to co-produce the documentary The Debutantes, which follows a group of Canton, Ohio-based Black women and girls revitalizing the tradition of the debutante ball.
In an interview with Multichannel News, BET Studios executive VP and general manager Aisha Summers Burke discussed the launch of Diarra from Detroit and offers her thoughts on the changing scripted TV marketplace. Here's an edited version of that discussion.
MCN: Why did BET Studios choose Diarra from Detroit as its first scripted project?
Aisha Summers-Burke: When I met Diarra [Kilpatrick], we sat and talked about this project. It made me laugh, it made me wonder, it made me guess, and it made me want to watch more and figure out what happens. She was very clear about her vision, so I think in a time when it’s tough to get projects made, having creators who have a real vision is a plus.
MCN: The TV industry is experiencing a decline in the amount of scripted content being greenlit and distributed compared to just a few years ago. Do you feel this is still a viable marketplace to get distribution for your content?
ASB: The business, obviously, has changed since 2021 when we launched. There was a time where DEI was really ramping up — we were coming off of George Floyd and everybody felt like they needed to do something. Now in 2024, it’s a little different, and I think that feeling in certain places around the industry has cooled. My hope is that it will stabilize and that there’ll be a return to really understanding how important it is for storytelling to be diverse on so many levels. We at BET Studios are looking to provide that type of content.
MCN: Do you have a certain number of projects that you want to launch in 2024?
ASB: If it were up to me, I would put out an unlimited amount of shows, but being a studio I have to work with every network and platform. What I can control is making the best product possible. Diarra is the first of many projects that I’m hoping we’ll announce in 2024 and 2025.
MCN: Are you targeting your projects to a particular platform, whether it's linear or streaming?
ASB: I am really focused on creating good content with creators everywhere, so there’s not one place that I'm focused on. The goal is to have projects that are very different, that are very diverse in terms of storytelling, in terms of characters, in terms of reach, and that we can play any space that we want anywhere around town.
