After airing three seasons at The CW, The Game was surprisingly canceled in May 2009. Nonetheless, it turned out that this comedy drama series isn’t over yet.
Black Entertainment Television (BET) is now banking on The Game.The used-to-hit-airwaves television series has finally returned for its fourth season premiering last January 2011.
The Game is a spinoff of the successful television series Girlfriends. The show’s creator and producers want to capitalize on the former’s success thus twisted The Game.
During its debut episode on April 17, 2006, the character Melanie Barnett was introduced as the first cousin of the Girlfriend’s main character Joan Clayton. Occasionally then, Joan shows up to make an appearance as a transitory to the new series. The pioneering episode was well- received by the viewers hence The CW decided to continue the series and scheduled it among the network’s primetime lineup. However on the latter part, CW dropped The Game as the network made a strategic shift to all-drama primetime. Despite the clamors to save the show, the series was left in limbo.
Fortunately, after a few weeks then, the Akils who were the executive producer and creator of the show were approached by BET, intending to restore the original programming. “I thought, ‘Duh, we can do something about this,’ ” assumed Loretha Jones, BET’s president. Albeit refurbished The Game was not easily made possible. BET hardly had noteworthy track record and the CBS Paramount Network Television, who is the righteous owner of the show, was dubious of the idea. Nonetheless, BET secured the license and gives The Game a second chance on air. On a more positive note, the comedy series now ranks as one of the highest rating off-net series in BET’s history. In fact, The Game had a higher premier rating on BET than it had on the CW, which drew 7.7 million viewers.
The comedy drama stars Tia Mowry as Melanie Barnett. The young and intelligent medical student is the love interest of the neophyte football player Derwin Davis (Pooch Hall). Tia ignores the opportunity at John Hopkins’s University School of Medicine and instead follows Derwin at San Diego Sabers where he was tapped as a professional rookie playing as the new third-string wide receiver. As Melanie tries to tweak her lifestyle, she meets Tasha Mack (Wendy Raquel Robinson) who is the mother and former manager of San Diego Sabers superstar quarterback Malik Wright (Hosea Chanzes); Kelly Pitts (Brittany Daniel) is the ex-wife of Jason Pitts (Coby Bell). Then their journey began.
In the new season of The Game, the cast are reunited though some sacrifices were made. Production staffs were slightly reduced but they were still drawn from the original team. Likewise, the whole production had to move to Atlanta from Los Angeles, taking advantage of the tax breaks. Nevertheless, these petty adjustments were insignificant compared to the drastic envisioned changes by the Akils. For now, The Game continues a blissfully profane and saucy show that is even more welcomed than it has ever been.
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