Tyler Perry Celebrates New Series With Emotional Speech

Tyler Perry celebrated the premieres of his two new BET series, Sistas and The Oval, at the Southern Exchange in Atlanta on Sunday night (October 20), and he marked the occasion by showing love and gratitude to the people who got him there.

“It’s my hope and prayer that you all will watch [these shows] and encourage everyone you know to watch these shows, be there with us, for us, through us, be there with BET as we go through this whole new coming together, this whole new transition. I need you like never before,” he said to an enraptured crowd.

He then added one more appeal to audiences: “There’s this new thing they have called Twitter – yes I’m 50 – I need you to tweet as much as you can, show your love, talk back to me on Twitter, I want to know about the show.” 

Perry continued, “What I’ve found is that on all these years, it’s always been my fans, my audience and the people who are right by my side who have kept me grounded, who have kept, kept me understanding and kept me close so I never forgot so thank you for that.”

Sistas follows a small group of single Black women as they navigate life, love and careers. “Sistas is about four young melanated queens doing this thing in the world,” Novi Brown, who stars as Sabrina Hollins in the show, told us. “They’re professionals, they’re business owners, but they’re also women who are seeking happiness within themselves and having that inner sister circle.”

RELATED: Go Behind The Scenes Of ‘Sistas’ With This Exclusive Clip

The Oval, on the other hand, will introduce viewers to the new first family moving into the White House. This picture-perfect couple has it all! Money, status, and pure bliss flank the Mr. & Mrs. However, behind closed doors, they are anything but flawless. With lies, cheating and messy mayhem running amuck, in the new scripted series, we see next level corruption up close and way too personal, directly from the White House. Please believe, you could not write this… but Tyler did! The show stars Ed Quinn, Kron Moore, Paige Hurd and Daniel Croix Henderson.

RELATED: What The Cast Of ‘The Oval’ Would Do On Their First Day In Office

Both series premiere on BET this Wednesday, October 23 beginning at 9/8c. Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtags #TheOvalOnBET and #SistasOnBET.