OWN’s original documentary series Black Love on Saturday (August 27) will end its sixth and final season of chronicling the relationships and lives of celebrity and everyday couples. 

Created by married filmmakers Codie and Tommy Oliver, The NAACP Image Awards-nominated series over its run has featured the intimate stories of marriage and love from some of America’s favorite Black couples, including Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathe, Grant Hill and Tamia, and Viola Davis and Julius Tennon.

Codie Oliver recently talked to Multichannel News about the series’ final season as well as the impact Black Love has had on the culture as well as her own relationship. Oliver also talks about future plans for the Black Love franchise in an edited version of the interview that appears below. 

MCN: Is the final season of Black Love a bitter/sweet experience for the two of you?

Codie Oliver: Definitely. For seven years, we have filmed couples, just the two of us and them in the room, with the intention of making it as intimate as possible and for the conversations to be as transparent as possible. It has been logistically challenging as our family has grown and our businesses have grown but we’re excited about ending the series on a high note. It is bitter sweet especially for me because I love meeting incredible couples and sharing their stories through the docuseries, but I look forward to channeling that energy through the rest of our Black Love platforms. 

MCN: What should viewers expect to see in the final season of "Black Love?

CO: We have some new love and parenting journeys that we’re very excited to share, that will create conversation and hopefully expand people’s view of unconditional love. We always do an homage to the couples in season during the finale, but we have some special moments celebrating the legacy couples as well. We aren’t going to lie, there were some tears while editing.

MCN: Do you feel that you've accomplished the goals that you set for the series?

CO: Absolutely. We set out to make sure that our community knows that we are worthy and deserving of love, but it is not without hard work and understanding the meaning of commitment. We have been touched countless times by people sharing the impact that Black Love has had on them, whether they are single, engaged, married, married for decades, our show has been able to open their eyes to their relationship and its possibilities in new ways. 

MCN: What did you as a couple take away from having produced the series? Were there any major revelations and/or disappointments that you experienced in doing the show?

CO: We made a couple of observations having interviewed around 250 couples. One is that the commitment to being committed is what will see you through. It’s not revolutionary, but it is easy to get swallowed up by the ebbs and flows of a relationship when you don’t look at commitment in that way. Another thing is to always consider the 'why.' Your partner isn't perfect. You and they will make mistakes. But getting to the root of why something happened is the most worthwhile effort over thinking any one thing is insurmountable. Understanding why something happened helps diagnose and treat the underlying issues. We are the sum of all of our experiences, our past traumas, our baggage, our unexpressed expectations and sometimes that’s what's showing up in our relationship and course correction is needed.

MCN: What's next for the two of you?

CO: Tommy is running the production company he founded, called Confluential Films, and is a full-time producer, writer, director (and more). For me, Black Love is 365 days a year. We both run Black Love, Inc., but lead the team and oversee countless live and virtual events, custom video campaigns with brand partners, Black Love’s Podcast Network – I even host some of the podcasts, and I manage content for Black Love’s streaming platform, the Black Love+ App. We are committed to celebrating and affirming the Black community through the lens of love day in and day out.■

OWN will debut the sixth and final season of its documentary series Black Love on July 23, the network said Thursday.

The series will continue to showcase authentic, honest, emotional and transparent love stories from known couples in entertainment and business, as well as everyday couples, according to the network. 

Among the couples featured in the series' final season are JB Smoove and Shahidah Omar, DJ Envy and Gia Casey, Mike Hill and Cynthia Bailey, and Adrienne Banfield Norris and Rodney Norris, according to OWN.

Black Love creators Codie & Tommy Oliver also serve as executive producers for the series, which is produced by Confluential Films.■ 

OWN has solidified its weekend unscripted programming block through the end of the year with the renewal of five series and the ordering of new series, Young & Gospel, the network said Thursday.

Series returning in 2021 include the third season of Ready to Love on April 2, followed by the summer premiere of sophomore series Put a Ring on It as well as Love & Marriage: Huntsville, which will return for a third season, said the network.

Also Read: OWN Goes to Court with ‘Delilah’ Legal Drama Series

Also debuting this year are Black Love for its fifth season and Family or Fiancé for its second campaign, said OWN.

Along with the renewals, the network has greenlit a new series, Young & Gospel, which will follow the lives of four young gospel artists as they pursue their dreams and live life on their own terms while staying true to their faith and their families, said network officials. 

Also Read: OWN's 'Iyanla: Fix My Life to Conclude After Eight Seasons

“When we expanded our original unscripted programming block to Friday and Saturday nights last fall, viewers showed up in a big way,’” OWN president Tina Perry said. “In response to that success, we are giving our audience more of the shows they love along with the new series Young & Gospel, which will be a perfect addition to our growing roster.”

OWN has given a greenlight to a fourth season of its documentary series Black Love, which will return to the network Sept. 5.

The series, created by producers Codie and Tommy Oliver, presents transparent life stories of African-American celebrity couples such as Dulé Hill & Jazmyn Simon, Jemele Hill & Ian Wallace, Bill & Kristen Bellamy, and Deborah Joy Winans & Terrence Williams.

Topics to be discussed during the series include the early days of marriage and  navigating grief and mental health, according to OWN. 

OWN has given a greenlight to a fourth season of its documentary series Black Love, which will return to the network Sept. 5.

The series, created by Codie and Tommy Oliver, presents transparent life stories of African-American celebrity couples such as Dulé Hill & Jazmyn Simon, Jemele Hill & Ian Wallace, Bill & Kristen Bellamy, and Deborah Joy Winans & Terrence Williams.

Topics to be discussed include the early days of marriage and navigating grief and mental health, according to OWN. 

Valentine’s Day is over, but romance-themed shows featuring African-American leads are blossoming on cable and subscription video-on-demand platforms.

Programming executives said shows like OWN’s scripted show Cherish the Day, as well as unscripted program Black Love and Urban Movie Channel’s scripted Stuck With You, offer African-American viewers authentic portrayals of relationships that have been rare on the small screen.

“I think the whole love and marriage/black love concept is going to start showing up a lot more, because there is such an opportunity to show black people in love on television,” Cheryl Grace, Nielsen’s senior VP of U.S. strategic community alliances and consumer engagement, said. “It’s trending now and you’ll see a lot more in the future.”

While the genre found a home in film during the late 1990s and early 2000s with such movies as Love & Basketball, Love Jones and Poetic Justice, there have been few television shows depicting African-American couples in romantic relationships.

Nostalgia for those popular 1990s films served helped to inspire Cherish the Day, executive producer Ava DuVernay told writers during January’s TCA Winter Press Tour. She said she wanted to bring similar stories to the small screen.

“I just longed to see that kind of black love story on television,” she said. “All of our collaborators just embraced that with a sense of joy about exploring black love, which is something we don’t feel we see hardly enough.”

Each episode in the eight-part series represents a day in the life of a couple. Its Feb. 11 premiere drew nearly 1 million viewers, making it cable’s the top-rated show among African-American women and among total viewers in its 10 p.m. time slot, Nielsen reported.

“In all of our dramas, there is some notion of love and romance … and I think that Ava’s new show, Cherish the Day, is going to be an even louder call than anything we’ve had to date,” OWN president Tina Perry said. “[DuVernay] is showing for the first time in a very intimate, one-on-one way black love in all of its beauty, nuances and challenges.”

Streaming service UMC’s original dramedy Stuck With You follows the behind-the-scenes ups and downs of a celebrity couple. “Stuck With You is the perfect blend of comedy and relationships drama,” UMC chief content officer Brett Dismuke said. “Our original shows like Stuck With You and [Craig Ross Jr.’s Monogamy] pluck at the emotional heartstrings of the viewers.”

OWN’s Perry said African-American viewers are hungry for content that reflects their lives and images, and relationship-themed content has always resonated with the audience. The network had earlier renewed four unscripted relationship-themed shows, including Black Love, in which real couples open up about the realities of love, marriage and romance in the African-American community.

“As African-American viewers and consumers, we are really ready to see black love on TV in a really direct and intimate way,” Perry said. “I think [DuVernay’s Cherish the Day] will amplify a message and a mission that we’ve been on for years, and I think the viewers are absolutely going to love it.”

OWN has renewed four shows from its original unscripted lineup including freshman series Love & Marriage: Huntsville and veteran series Black Love, the network announced Thursday.

Other freshman unscripted series returning for a second season include Black Women OWN the Conversation and Ready to Love, according to the network.

Black Love, which highlight honest, emotional and sometimes awkward love stories from the Black community featuring mostly married celebrity and real-life couples, will return for a fourth season, said OWN.

“We are thrilled to continue building our unscripted slate with the return of these fan favorite series,” said OWN president Tina Perry in a statement. “These shows collectively tell real stories that deeply resonate with our audience, and we are proud to create authentic content that’s relatable to our viewers. We look forward to keep exploring love in African American relationships.” 

TNT’s medical-themed reality series Chasing The Cure tops the list of new series debuting during the week of Aug. 5 to Aug. 11.

The live series, hosted by Ann Curry, seeks to help people who suffer from undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or uncured medical mysteries by linking patients with medical experts to help find answers, according to network officials.

On the returning series front, HBO will will bring back its freshman drama series Succession for its sophomore campaign on Aug. 11.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

Aug. 5 -- My Life Is Murder (drama series) -- Acorn Tv

Aug. 6 -- Hard Knocks:Training Camp With The Oakland Raiders (sports series) -- HBO

Aug. 8 -- Wu Assassins -- (action series) -- Netflix

Aug. 9 -- The Family -- (reality) -- Netflix

Aug. 9 -- Free Meek -- (documentary) -- Prime Video

Aug. 9 -- GLOW -- (drama series) -- Netflix

Aug. 10 -- Black Love (documentary series) -- OWN

Aug. 11 -- Squidbillies (animation) -- Adult Swim

OWN will debut the third season of its docu-series Black Love on Aug. 10, according to network officials.

The series, which celebrates love stories from the Black community, will focus on such couples as Terry and Rebecca Crews, LeToya Luckett and Tommicus Walker, David and Tamela Mann, Kandi Burruss and Todd Tucker, Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson as well as numerous everyday couples from all walks of life, said the network.

Related: OWN Offers More 'Black Love'

Black Love is created and produced by filmmakers Codie Elaine Oliver and Tommy Oliver (The Perfect Guy) and Confluential Films.

OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network tonight (May 12) launches the second season of its successful documentary series Black Love, which takes an unflinching and honest look inside African-American marriages. 

The series’ first season debuted last fall with 1.2 million total viewers, becoming OWN’s most-watched unscripted series debut in network history and its highest-rated unscripted series debut in more than four years in the network’s key female 25-54 year-old demo.

Black Love creators and executive producers Codie Elaine Oliver and Tommy Oliver (The Perfect Guy) recently spoke to me about the success of the show’s freshman run and their expectations for the upcoming season, which will feature such celebrity couples as Emmy Award-winning actor Sterling K. Brown and wife Ryan Michelle Bathe; Emmy Award-winning actress Niecy Nash and husband Jay Tucker; and NBA All-Star Grant Hill and Grammy-nominated recording artist Tamia.

What was your inspiration to create the show?

Tommy Oliver: Part of it was so much of what we seen on reality and scripted TV is an incredibly poor rendering of black families and black married families in particular. For us, we knew that there was information and images that we wanted to see, and we assumed that many other people wanted to see it as well. Most TV is generated by ratings and advertising, so drama and sensationalism tend to do well. Beyond that, it comes down to the people who are creating the content and have the ability to greenlight content. When you are not a part of the decision-making process, you don’t have the ability to really inform what you see and shape the narrative, and a lot of that is why we end up with these poor renderings [of black marriages] that are dangerous to the psyche of folks who want to get married, or want to see themselves and the aspirational elements of what they are endeavoring toward.

Were you surprised at the success of the first season of Black Love?

TO: Yes. We suspected that people would be excited about seeing wholesome content and seeing us in that light, but to see how much people responded emotionally and how much it seemed to resonate with people certainly exceeded our hopes and expectations.

What is the secret sauce behind the success of the show?

Codie Elaine Oliver: First, I think that there was just a lack of this kind of programming in the marketplace, so when something doesn’t exist, people are very appreciative and excited about it, and want to take part in the experience. Add to that the mix of regular [married] folks who were just like us as well as [married] celebrities -- all of whom were treated the same. We don’t include last names or professions; we just wanted to highlight Viola and Julius or Andre and Latoya as happy, loving couples just as you or me, or -- if you’re a single person watching – you may want to be because it is so aspirational. So the secret to the sauce was making it as relatable as possible by showing people as they are, talking about their highs and their lows.

What should audiences expect to see from the second season?

CEO: Structurally it’s the same in terms of interweaving different couples’ stories – there are new themes and questions, but we also use some of the old themes. How love begins is really important to us to make sure we’re showing the romantic starts -- or the false starts -- to how couples find each other. 

TO: We deal with other subjects that we didn’t really get into in season one. While we dealt with infidelity in season one, it was exclusively from the male side. This time we have a woman who cheated on her husband, and another who had an emotional affair. So much of what we explore in the show comes from our couples. We don’t go in with a theme or thread in mind, but we talk to them and figure out what they went through, and then we figure out how to put the best episodes together.

OWN has ordered additional episodes of its unscripted series Black Love after the series’ Aug. 29 debut set a network ratings record for a reality series premiere.

The four-part series, created by Elaine Oliver and Tommy Oliver (The Perfect Guy), drew 1.2 million viewers for Tuesday's episode, becoming the network’s highest-rated unscripted series premiere in OWN history, according to network officials. The series highlights love stories from African-American married couples and examines the reality of what life-long love looks like, said network officials.

Featured couples for the current four-episode season include Viola Davis and husband Julius Tennon, actress Meagan Good and husband DeVon Franklin, Tia Mowry and husband/actor Cory Hardrict, actor Flex Alexander and his wife and musical artist Shanice.

New episodes for 2018 will include Sterling K. Brown and wife Ryan Michelle Bathe, Tina Knowles-Lawson and husband Richard Lawson, former NBA player Grant Hill and wife, recording artist Tamia.