All American: Homecoming premieres tonight (February 21) at 9PM ET/PT on The CW. The show, a spinoff of All American, is a young adult sports drama set against the backdrop of the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) experience at Bringston University, where Black excellence is a way of life. Here’s how The CW describes it:
The series follows Simone (Geffri Maya, “All American”), a young tennis hopeful from Beverly Hills who is trying to fight her way back to great after some time away from the court, and Damon (Peyton Alex Smith, “Legacies”), an elite baseball player from Chicago who is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. After Simone’s aunt Amara Patterson (Kelly Jenrette, “Manhunt”), a journalism teacher and activist, exposes a scandal that threatens to derail the school’s beloved baseball program, new coach Marcus Turner (Cory Hardrict, “The Chi”) is determined to bring a championship back to Bringston the honest way — with Damon’s help. Damon will adjust to his new normal with fellow baseball player and childhood friend JR (Sylvester Powell, “Five Points”) by his side. Meanwhile, as Simone struggles to find her footing, she will get a little guidance from Thea (Camille Hyde, “Katy Keene”), the super-competitive queen bee of the Bringston tennis team, and Keisha (Netta Walker, “Come as You Are”), the school’s unofficial mayor, who will help Simone learn how to live her best life. As they contend with the high stakes of college sports, Simone and Damon will also navigate the highs, lows, and sexiness of unsupervised early adulthood at a prestigious HBCU.
“The spinoff is centered around tennis and baseball and just HBCU life in general. I’m so excited it for you guys to meet all these characters. I very much talk about them like they’re real friends in my life, ’cause that’s what they feel like,” creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll said in a TCA press Q&A.
Going beyond All American, though, this is “a whole new group of friends.” “It’s a whole new family,” Carroll adds. “We were very lucky to meet most of them during the backdoor pilot that aired during Season 3 of All American, but there are a lot of amazing new characters that cover the spectrum, the absolute spectrum of what it is to be young and Black and at an HBCU, and so we’re excited for you to meet them.”
You can see a gallery of photos from the first episode below. All American: Homecoming stars Geffri Maya as Simone Hicks, Peyton Alex Smith as Damon Sims, Kelly Jenrette as Amara Patterson, Cory Hardrict as Coach Marcus Turner, Sylvester Powell as JR, Camille Hyde as Thea Mays, Mitchell Edwards as Cam Watkins and Netta Walker as Keisha McCalla.
