Bronzeville

Bronzeville

Also known as	Adult-ish
Creator	piperjr
Genre	Reality television
Starring	Antonio de la Cruz Nicole Fontaine de la Cruz Corey Butler Cheyenne Willard Arielle Evans Spencer Evans Marcus Montgomery Tandi Long Montgomery Jeremiah Pope Valeria Pope
Country of origin	United States
Language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	12
Production
Running time	44 minutes
Production Companies	Motion Media Productions Upside Entertainment
Original release
Network	Piper TV
Release	April 14, 2024 - present
Related
Bar TLC Bar TLC After Show Bar TLC: The Renovation

Bronzeville is an American reality television series that premiered on PiperTV on April 14, 2024. It is a spin-off series of Bar TLC as it follows former servers and bartenders (Antonio de la Cruz, Nicole Fontaine de la Cruz, Corey Butler, and Cheyenne Willard) as they settle into their lives post-service industry in Chicago's South Side-area neighborhood of Bronzeville. It has aired one season and focuses on the personal and professional life of, not only the four previous Bar TLC employees, but also their friends, co-workers, and family members residing in Chicago, Illinois.

Background[edit | edit source]

During filming for the eighth season of Bar TLC, the show's production companies, Motion Media Productions and Upside Entertainment, considered a possible spin-off series for some of the original cast members who had moved away from the service industry and focus more on their personal family lives. At the time, cast members Eddie Daniels and Paulie Powell had just partnered with Cassandra Brown on a new bar and were seen as locks to remain on the flagship series along with their significant others, Jaclyn Layne and Sarah Jane Caruso. Productions prime candidates for the new series were couples Corey Butler and Cheyenne Willard as well as Nicole Fontaine and Antonio de la Cruz, who had both recently purchased homes in the neighborhood of Bronzeville. Piper TV had initially intended to move forward with the spin-off at the conclusion of the eighth season's reunion as more of a continuation for the departed cast members, similar to other Piper TV series Summer & Kyle and Memphis Music. However, plans for the series were ultimately halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 4, 2020, publications began reporting about threats to release sensitive and potentially damaging information about Butler to the masses if failure to make a monetary ransom payment was not met by Butler or his close circle of people. Butler released a statement expressing both concern and confusion for the messages as he could not recall any sort of information that would warrant such a response and had no intention of complying with the demands. On August 13, 2020, TMZ released a 6-minute alleged video of Butler apologizing to former romantic fling, Francis "Faith" Gaines, for "choking [her] out, pulling [her] real hair out, and dislodging [her] tooth during an altercation earlier in the day". Reports began flooding about the bombshell video while also connecting dots to the previous information leak threat. The following day, Butler released a statement claiming inaccuracies in the validity of the video as it was for a promotional acting reel for a wrestling series. On August 18, 2020, five day after the release of the video, Gaines released her own statement saying she is not present in the video but backed up Butler's claims that he was pursuing several acting gigs while they were together. At this point, fans and critics alike questioned the validity of the claims with some going so far as to say Gaines may have fabricated her story, as there was no way of proving her presence behind the camera of the video. In separate interviews, Willard and Fontaine showed support for their current and former boyfriend, respectively, by maintaining stances from years prior that he was never physically abusive in their relationships. On September 21, 2020, Piper TV released a statement citing their internal investigation to corroborate the validity of these claims as Bar TLC continued on hiatus due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On December 2, 2020, Piper TV released a statement stating their investigation found no misconduct on Butler's part and he "maintains behavior that is deemed within the standards of our production's practices". Nevertheless, on January 11, 2021, Piper TV announced Butler, Willard, Fontaine, and de la Cruz would not be returning to Bar TLC for the ninth season.

On March 22, 2023, in the midst of the cheating scandal plaguing Bar TLC, reports began circulating that Motion Media Productions and Upside Entertainment had reopened talks and negotiations for the spin-off series, again focusing on Butler, Willard, Fontaine, and de la Cruz. On June 28, 2023, along with announcing the eleventh season renewal of Bar TLC, Piper TV teased a spin-off series featuring "familiar faces from the midwest becoming an adult-ish". Executive Justin Monroe continued by saying, "Should I just tell you? Oh, I can't I'm just too shy", before the Kajagoogoo song of the same name started playing. Many interpreted this as confirmation of the Bar TLC spin-off as "shy" and "Chi" sound the same. On January 28, 2024, during the premiere of Bar TLC, a two-minute teaser was released confirming the returns of Corey Butler, Cheyenne Willard, Nicole Fontaine de la Cruz, and Antonio de la Cruz along with the debuts of Arielle Evans, Spencer Evans, Marcus Montgomery, Tandi Long Montgomery, Jeremiah Pope, and Valeria Pope as main cast members on the new series titled Bronzeville. On February 22, 2024, Piper TV released the official trailer for the series, which confirmed former The Bachelor contestant Taylor Gourley and de la Cruz's childhood best friend Ignacio Guzman serving in a recurring capacity. The first season of Bronzeville premiered on April 14, 2024.

The series is the third spin-off from Bar TLC; the seventh episode in the 11th season serves as a cross-over preview to Bronzeville.

Production[edit | edit source]

The first season consisted of 12 episodes, premiering from April 14, 2024 to June 30, 2024. The penultimate episode chronicled the nuptials between long-time couple and co-parents Corey Butler and Cheyenne Willard. Bar TLC cast members Cassandra Brown, Eddie Daniels, Zamiyah Mendelson, Paulie Powell, Heaven Santana, Tyson Stanford, and Angela Young all made guest appearances at the wedding. On July 17, 2024, PiperTV announced the second season renewal of Bronzeville, with the entire first season cast returning.