Deiwght Peters Show enjoys breakout season

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

In a media landscape where everything entertainment looks and feels the same, The Deiwght Peters Show could be the vehicle that redefines how Jamaicans view entertainment content.

The show just wrapped a short six-show season on Television Jamaica, and early indications are that it is shaping up to be a game changer.

"There has been incredible feedback! It's a runaway success," said the show's creator and host, Deiwght Peters, a man known more widely for the place he holds in the fashion industry as head of model agency Saint International.

"The magic of it is what I am trying to understand. Why does it appeal to so many demographics? I thought the demographic would have been pretty fixed, but you find senior businessmen - business leaders who live in the hills of Kingston - who are commenting that they actually host viewer parties on a Friday night; also, businessmen and business leaders in Montego Bay. Similarly, you have the security guard who might see you and say, 'Mr Peters, I love the show'. There are communities, I understand, in certain parts of the country that are virtually on lockdown on Friday nights just to see the show."

Claire Grant, general manager of Television Jamaica, who picked up the show earlier this year, shed some light on what makes the show appealing.

Grant has a quarter century of experience in media, having spent time reporting at The Daily Gleaner during the 1990s, but it is her experience as editor of The STAR, where she spent the better part of a decade up close with the entertainment landscape, that gives her a unique perspective on what the show offers.

"The 'DP' show was interesting to us because indeed, while it is a talk show, of which our landscape has many, we were convinced that there was a uniqueness about it that would make it interesting to audiences. It is not always a sure guide when you see a pilot, but in this case, we thought what we saw would, at minimum, turn some heads," she said.

FRESH PERSPECTIVE

The objective of the show, Peters said, was to primarily bring a fresh perspective on Jamaican entertainment in the sense that there are many different aspects to entertainment and how it is presented to Jamaican audiences.

Some of Jamaica's biggest celebrities, people who residents see every day but know so little about, helped make the show a hit.

Personalities like Cindy Breakspeare, Oliver Samuels, and Emily Crooks, former morning talk-show-host-turned-attorney, graced Peters' couch and revealed much about their 'other' lives, the ones they lead away from the spotlight.

Peters has his eyes on even more famous guests for season two and beyond as he aims to take the show to new heights and into new markets. He mentioned that he intends to take the show into the diaspora and that negotiations aimed at broadening the show's reach were already under way.

"I would love to sit with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and really have people understand that apart from this tough exterior that we see, there is a softer side. I'd love to speak to Opposition Leader Andrew Holness," said Peters.

Season two comes up later this year and Peters is excited about what the future holds.

Content is everywhere, he said, but as was the case with the first season, he wants the content to be paramount regardless of what direction it takes. He makes it clear that nothing would be off limits.