The Game is an American comedy-drama television series created by Mara Brock Akil and produced by Kelsey Grammer as a spinoff of Girlfriends, which follows the fortunes of a group of women who all have relationships with professional football players.
A comedy series that initially centres round Melanie Barnett (played by Tia Mowry) - a first-year medical school student.
Melanie's given up an offer of admission to Johns Hopkins University's medical school in Baltimore to follow her boyfriend Derwin Davis (Pooch Hall), a professional football player, to San Diego, against the advice of her parents. Derwin is a first-year rookie with a team called the "San Diego Sabers".
As Melanie settles into her new life, she meets Tasha Mack (Wendy Raquel Robinson), the mother of Sabers' starting quarterback Malik Wright (Hosea Chanchez), and Kelly Pitts (Brittany Daniel), the wife of Sabers' captain Jason Pitts (Coby Bell).
As she learns to balance her new roles as both med student and the partner of an NFL player, Tasha and Kelly warn her to keep a close eye on her boyfriend because of the numerous "gold diggers" who approach the professional football players.
Season 6 introduced new characters to the show in the form of Keira Michelle Whitaker (Lauren London) and Bryce "Blue" Westbrook (Jay Ellis). They joined fellow cast members Wendy Raquel Robinson, Hosea Chanchez, Coby Bell and Brandy Norwood after Tia Mowry left the show.
The show was created by the creator and producers of Girlfriends and is executive produced by Mara Brock Akil, Salim Akil, Kenny Smith, Erica Montolfo-Buro and Kelsey Grammer. Hale Rothstein and Jennifer Genzuk-Rice joined as executive procucers in Season 8.
Broadcast Notes
After three seasons the series was cancelled by the CW in May 2009. BET struck a deal with The Game's parent company CBS to develop new episodes of the series, announcing its renewal at the April 2010 upfronts.
The series was cancelled after nine seasons by BET.
The Game premiered in South Africa on SABC3 on Monday 22 June 2009, at 19h30. It moved to SABC1 for the second season and returned to SABC3 for Season 7.