OWN will air this summer a new documentary series from Essence magazine that looks at Black America over the past 50 years. 

The five-part series, Time of Essence, will explore a different decade from the 1970s through today and show how the magazine has informed and reflected Black culture through first-hand commentary from the icons, trailblazers, Essence staffers and leaders who lived and defined them, said the network.

The documentary will feature such celebrities as Regina Hall, Halle Berry, Whoopi Goldberg, Taye Diggs and Sheryl Lee Ralph, as well as longtime Essence Editor and Chief Susan L. Taylor and current Essence magazine editor Mikki Taylor. 

“In 1970, Essence recognized that Black women’s contributions to society were being undervalued, and set a new standard as the first publications to reflect Black womanhood, affirming her strength, style and achievements and provoking industry reform and change," OWN President Tina Perry said. “This series will be a testament to what Essence has been historically and how it continues to shape the culture at large today.”

Time of Essence is executive produced by Christian Sarabia and Nicole Elliott, Raymond Garcia, Emmet Dennis, Sidra Smith, Stephanie “NöNe'' Dunivan and Barkue Tubman-Zawolo.■ 

With degrees from Stanford, Oxford and Harvard, Tina Perry is one of those people who was already incredibly accomplished before she ever entered the workforce.

While she always knew she wanted to work in the entertainment industry, Perry took a practical approach to it. “I knew, long-term, the business of entertainment was where my passion was, but the law was a great path for me to learn about the business,” she said. “Before I went to law school, I was torn between going into law and business school. I met some people who worked in the entertainment industry and they gave me some great advice: the truth about the entertainment industry is that it’s one big negotiation.”

Perry took that advice to heart and got her JD from Harvard Law School. From there, she went straight to a law firm, New York-based Cravath, Swaine & Moore. While working there, she represented public companies in connection with public offerings, private placements and general corporate governance matters.

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“Choosing to practice corporate law paid off 100%,” Perry said. “I really started to understand big business and how to read balance sheets. The exposure to business helped me. It gave me a great foundation for how the whole ecosystem of how the entertainment industry works.”

It was after Cravath that she made her move into entertainment. She was hired to work in business and legal affairs for Viacom-owned MTV and VH1, and she relocated from New York to Los Angeles.

“It took four or five years for me to find my tribe in L.A.,” Perry said. “In the early years, instead of being lonely, I immersed myself in experiences and hobbies that have really paid off for me. I missed New York, but it has been great for my career to be in Los Angeles.”

In 2009, she joined Oprah Winfrey’s nascent basic cable network, OWN, as VP of business and legal affairs.

“I knew I wanted to be more entrepreneurial in my career, to be an integral part of a business that was growing and evolving,” Perry said. “The chance to work with Oprah and her brand was so enticing. I don’t think I ever thought I would have an opportunity to work with Oprah or her brand, just because it was such a rarified experience. There are not many people who have a brand like hers that’s so clean, so defined and that has touched so many. Working for and with Oprah has been bigger than a dream come true for me.”

Even then, though, Perry knew that she had bigger goals in mind than leading negotiations for OWN. “I knew that I wanted to be the general manager of some sort of entertainment business, to run a P&L and help a larger business generate revenue and be successful,” she recalled.

After about six years at OWN, Perry joined its board of directors, which allowed her to get even closer to the business of running the network. “The scope of my work running business and legal affairs broadened and I started overseeing standards and practices and risk assessment. I also started working with peers and partners on other parts of the business,” she said.

Connecting With the C-Suite

Making those connections and getting that exposure paid off and, in January 2019, Perry was named president of OWN. In the past year, OWN has had five series land in the top 10 among African-American viewers, had the top four original scripted cable series among African-American women aged 18 and over and had five of the top 30 original scripted series on ad-supported cable among women 25-54. Those include such shows as Greenleaf and Queen Sugar and, in the past year, the network has begun airing original holiday movies also targeting its core female African- American audience.

“OWN is core for us at Discovery,” said David Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Inc., which co-founded the network with Winfrey. “We’re about quality brands that tell great stories. Most of last year, we were the No. 1 media company in America for women with such networks as HGTV, ID, TLC, Food Network and OWN. A big piece of that was the success Oprah and Tina had at OWN. It’s a huge source of pride for us that we are creating content at OWN that is really having an impact in the African-American community.”

OWN specifically seeks out African-American creators such as Ava DuVernay (Cherish the Day), Tyler Perry (The Haves and the Have Nots) and Tarell Alvin McCraney (David Makes Man). “Working with Tina Perry is like working with a generous and beautiful mind,” McCraney said. “I can’t think of a better person who deserves this recognition.”

McCraney et al. are part of OWN’s overall vision for itself, which has evolved since the network first launched in 2011.

“Oprah absolutely loves working with storytellers who have a strong voice and a specific point of view,” Perry said. “We have had the ability to attract some of today’s best talent, people who are interested in telling stories to our audience in new and engaging manners. The chance to work with Oprah and collaborate with her on creating series that are going to reach large audiences is a huge attractive element of who we are. It’s becoming part of our ethos.

“Our brand promise is ‘see yourself’ and whether she’s watching scripted, unscripted or Super Soul, our viewer comes to watch our programming and to see herself, her life and her history reflected in our storytelling,” Perry said.

Looking ahead, OWN is working toward what’s next in terms of streaming: “We’re part of the Discovery family,” Perry said. “Discovery has really great plans to go over the top, and we’ll be part of those plans. We know from our numbers and our engagement metrics that viewers want to receive our content that way, and we want to reach younger viewers. We are looking forward to a day soon when we will be offered that way.”

Career Highlights: Joining OWN as one of its first employees in 2009 before the network even launched in 2011 and then rising to become president of the network in January 2019.

Quotable: “Working for and with Oprah has been bigger than a dream come true for me.”

OWN has renewed its drama series David Makes Man for a second season, the network announced Thursday.

The series, executive produced by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Michael B. Jordan, Dee Harris-Lawrence, Mike Kelley, Melissa Loy and Oprah Winfrey, centers on the life decisions of a 14-year-old prodigy from the projects. The series stars Akili McDowell and Phylicia Rashad.

During its first season run, David Makes Man ranked second in its time period across all cable with African-American women and reached over 4.1 million unique viewers on OWN, the network said.

“Tarell McCraney has brought us a gift with this series and masterfully added a beautiful new hue to our palette of dramatic storytelling on OWN,” network president Tina Perry said in a statement. “Viewers and television critics alike have embraced David Makes Man and connected to its powerful message. We are honored to partner with the incredible producers and cast as well as our friends at Warner Horizon Scripted Television on a second season.”

Related: Tina Perry Makes OWN's Ambitions Clear 

Broadcast and cable networks will sing the praises of Aretha Franklin this weekend with special programming honoring the "Queen of Soul," who passed away Thursday.

Tonight (Aug. 17), PBS will air a special, Aretha! Queen Of Soul, which will feature archival footage from Franklin's career, along with interviews that will highlight her legacy, according to network officials.

Saturday, OWN re-air Oprah Winfrey’s 1999 television interview with Franklin from The Oprah Winfrey Show, while TV One will run an encore of two Franklin specials, TV One on One: Aretha Franklin and Aretha: Frankly Speaking.

Digital multicast TV network getTV on Sunday will pay its respects to Franklin with a rarely seen December 1967 episode of The Kraft Music Hall music variety series, featuring Franklin performing two of the biggest hits of her career, Respect and Chain Of Fools.

BET’s BET Her network on Monday will air a morning marathon of the prolific artist’s many music videos. BET Networks president Scott Mills said in a statement that Franklin’s extraordinary talents laid the groundwork for so many of today’s artists. 

“Aretha Franklin was a musical phenomenon and an iconic figure in black culture,” Mills said. “We will remember and miss her dearly.”

OWN’s long-running docu/reality series Welcome To Sweetie Pie’s will end its run after the upcoming fifth season, the network said Monday.

The series, which follows the lives of a family-operated soul food empire, will premiere its fifth season with a May 1 special sneak preview. The series will resume its run on Saturdays beginning May 5, said network officials.

Welcome To Sweetie Pie’s will end with its 100 episode on June 9, followed by a special one-hour after show hosted by comedian/actress Kym Whitley. Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s ranks as the second most watched original Saturday-night series in OWN history, according to the network.

“For nearly seven years, our viewers have fallen in love and followed an incredible journey with Miss Robbie, Tim and the whole family,” said Erik Logan, president, OWN in a statement. “It comes with immense gratitude and appreciation as we send off the series for its final season and make OWN history celebrating 100 memorable episodes.”

On Father’s Day, Discovery Channel and OWN will simultaneously air the documentary Rise: The Promise OfMy Brother’s Keeper, which will explore the lives and families of boys and young men of color from programs derived from the White House-inspired “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative.

I had a chance to speak with Rise producer Dawn Porter about the documentary, which features an poignant interview with President Barack Obama. Porter, who produced the HBO documentary Gideon’s Army, talks about her motivation in making Rise, as well as the documentary's significance and message in light of increased racial tensions in the country. An edited version of the interview appears below.

RTU: What was your inspiration in producing the documentary?

Dawn Porter: I was approached by Discovery to direct the film, and we had a lot of brainstorming about what we wanted to show. My Brother’s Keeper is an umbrella program, so as a director I had a creative challenge: how do you capture the spirit of what’s happening as well as show the variety of what’s happening?  Then for me as an African-American woman I’m very interested in social justice and truth, so it was important to me to let people tell their own stories and put them on center stage. So what we settled on was to spend some time with different programs across the country and show a range of approaches, and that’s how we got our main characters. In some ways each program that’s doing positive work for young men of color is a character in the show, but also each of the young adults is a character.

RTU: You were able to able to get President Obama to speak as part of the documentary. How important was his input in the overall message of the special?

DP: From the beginning Discovery had indicated that the President would sit for an interview, but he is the leader of the free world and he has a few things going on in his life. So we really didn’t have that scheduled until we had wrapped the shooting. Then we got the call and they allocated a short time for him, but they said the critical words ‘unless he wants to go longer.’ My guess was that he was really in a frame of mind to talk about the issues that we deal with in the special and the issues that prompted him to launch My Brother’s Keeper in the first place. His vision and his passion for what this is was really central – he spoke so movingly and long about his background and how crucial it is for him to do what he can and to use his office for that purpose. I hope that everybody watching understands the significance of that and having this President sit and talk about this topic.

RTU: Ultimately what do you want to accomplish with this documentary?

DP: I am an African-American woman with two sons aged 13 and 11, and I know the feelings I have when they walk out the door. Strangers don’t know what value my kids are brought up with – they see them and make judgements about them right or wrong. I wanted to let the young people and their families speak so that people can hear that our young men of color are not a problem to be fixed. They are young people who need what all young people need, which is our support, assistance and for us to pay attention to them and to be consistent. So I really wanted to give people an opportunity to hear from them and not to see them face down with handcuffs or having violence perpetrated against them. I wanted people to see them as people having all the struggles that every person that wants to make a good life for themselves have. What was so fantastic about this project was it was not hard to find programs or young people to feature.

RTU: Given what has gone on recently in the country regarding race relations, does it make the special that much more relevant?

DP: No doubt whatsoever. It’s something that we didn’t include [in the special] but I’ll tell you, the President said that when Trayvon Martin was killed it really redoubled his motivation to make sure that before he left office that this was launched and this happened. It feels like every month or every few weeks we’re hearing about another crisis, and I think people are in need of seeing what else is happening that is positive. I know I don’t have any desire to feel hopeless because that’s not acceptable. So I hope that while trying to acknowledge the real challenges everybody faces, we also acknowledge that this is not an impossible social condition, and that some people might need different support based on their individual needs.  We can’t just look at an entire group but we need to look at people individually. Also,I would love to see other directors and other producers bring their take to this – there are lots of voices that we should be hearing to show that this is what normal really is.