Single Ladies Information

Single Ladies is an American television series on the VH1 network, created by Stacy A. Littlejohn and produced by Queen Latifah's Flavor Unit Entertainment for the MTV network-owned cable channel. The show chronicles three friends, Val, Keisha and April (in season 2 Val was replaced by Raquel), and their relationships. The series premiered on May 30, 2011 with a two-hour television film.

On August 22, 2012, VH1 renewed the series for a third season to premiere in 2013.

Cast

• LisaRaye McCoy as Keisha Greene: a former hip-hop music video model turned semi-professional poker player who relies on her head instead of her heart when it comes to relationship decision-making.
• Charity Shea as April Goldberg (formerly Jenkins): April has been married for seven years to Darryl, and hopes to pursue her career dream by moving from assistant to the record label's owner to an A&R executive. As she begins to spread her wings, she realizes that marriage may not be her ideal situation. On April's birthday, Darryl served her with divorce papers.
• Denise Vasi as Raquel Lancaster (Season 2): a friend of Keisha's and April's.
• D. B. Woodside as Malcolm Franks: He turned his father's jewellery store into a successful international business. According to the VH1 blog, "He loves the ladies, and the ladies love him."
• Travis Winfrey as Omar Kearse (Season 2, recurring previously): an employee at the boutique and the outspoken, openly gay friend to the women.
• Stacey Dash as Valerie "Val" Stokes (Season 1): An aspiring fashion mogul who purchased a fashion boutique in "one of the hottest areas of Atlanta," the VH1 website says, "Ultimately, she's a "good girl" looking for a good man." Val has relocated to Milan and sold her boutique over to Raquel.
• Kassandra Clementi as Christina Carter (Season 1): A fashion intern with a free spirit and "an eye for fashion". She is a party girl and wild child. After failing her classes, she had been deported back home.

Recurring characters

• Timon Kyle Durrett as Quinn Davis (Season 1) - Val's selfish basketball player boyfriend of five years.
• Anthony Montgomery as Darryl Jenkins (Seasons 1-2) - April's husband of seven years
• Tilky Jones as K.C. (Season 1) - Val's tattoo artists friend with benefits, hopes they can start a relationship.
• Anthony Azizi as Wes Domingus (Season 1) - April's heartless boss at the record company.
• Tyler Hilton as Reed Durham (Season 1) - A wild child singer that April takes under her wing when he struggles to get his album released.
• Queen Latifah as Sharon Love - Val's college room mate and news presenter
• Lauren London as Shelley - Quinn's ex-fiance and a friend to the girls, Jerry Waters' daughter.
• Rick Fox as Agent Winston - an ambitious FBI agent investigating fraud and extortion who becomes involved with Keisha.
• Colin Salmon as Jerry Waters - Owner of Quinn's basketball team, Shelley's father and Val's boyfriend
• Tina Lifford as Evelyn Lancaster (Season 2) - Racquel's snobbish mother
• Terrell Tilford as Sean Clark (Season 2) - Keisha's ex-boyfriend and lawyer whom she begins dating on the rebound from Malcolm.
• William Levy as Antonio (Season 2) - Racquel's sex addicted childhood sweetheart.
• Paula Patton as Laila Twilight (Season 2) - a singer feuding with Sharon Love.
• Ricky Whittle as Charles (Season 2) - Racquel's boyfriend, a writer
• Mark Tallman as Reggie (Season 2) - April's problem prone boyfriend
• Cassandra Freeman as Morgan Thomas (Season 2) - a crazy and wild new employee at the boutique, mother of one, also looking for love and a chance to expand her family.
• Jamie Moreen as Nate Phillips (Season 2) - a part-time boyfriend of Racquel's while she also dates Charles.
• Finesse Mitchell as Jobari Freeman (Season 2) - a city bus driver that falls for Morgan until their different relationship plans clash.

Guest stars

• Terrell Owens
• Common as Mayor Trevor Howard (Season 1) - the Mayor of Atlanta with a criminal history, has an affair with April and eight other women.
• Darrin DeWitt Henson as Blake (Season 1)
• Wilson Cruz as Vincent (Season 1)
• Kelly Rowland as DJ Denise Phillips (Season 1) - a DJ that April persuades to play Reed's single, using her ties with April to sleep with Reed and get free clothes from the boutique.
• Pilar Sanders as Jennifer - Mayor Trevor Howard's wife
• Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas as herself - a personal friend of Keisha's
• Kim Porter as Jasmine - a conniving ex-video vixen that blackmails Keisha.
• Eve Jeffers as herself - an investor in the boutique.
• Jermaine Dupri as himself
• Yelawolf as himself
• Kandi Burruss
• Cam'ron as himself - an old friend of Keisha's
• Mac Miller as himself - an aspiring rapper that April manages to get signed.
• Michael Warren as Malcolm Franks, Sr. - Malcolm's father
• Durrell "Tank" Babbs as Joe Mason (Season 2) - a charming aspiring boxer that squat's in one of Keisha's properties.
• Damien Leake as Dennis Lancaster (Season 2) - Racquel's unfaithful father
• Margaret Avery as Josephine (Season 2) - a woman that befriends April at the ball
• Flex Alexander as James Blackwell (Season 2) - Shelley's boyfriend, running for governor of Atlanta.
• Victoria Rowell as Veronica Vanderbilt (Season 2) - Racquel's lawyer and Sean's ex-girlfriend
• Justin Gaston as Gavin - a man that April dates for a short while

Episodes

Production

The show was created by Stacy A. Littlejohn and directed by Tamra Davis, both of whom are also executive producers. The series is being produced two episodes at a time to save money.

The series executive producers include: Queen Latifah, Shelby Stone and Shakim Compere for Flavor Unit; Maggie Malina for POPfilms; Jeff Olde and Jill Holmes for VH1. The show is filmed and centered in Atlanta.

Latifah says she is "particularly proud" of the series, stating that ""We wanted the ladies to be able to talk about mature things. (Sex and the City) was an inspiration, but the real inspiration was real life...These are virile women who have emotions and desires, and they will be out there looking, but they'll do it on their own terms."

Writer Littlejohn believes that ""Single Ladies" could be a "jewel in the crown" for VH1." She also said that she feels like she is breaking new ground and setting a precedent, where VH1 and scripted shows are concerned, saying "I'm creating the formula".

According to Entertainment Weekly, series lead Stacey Dash has decided to exit the series after its inaugural season. Dash commented "I have to be back in L.A. with my children right now and the Single Ladies shooting location [in Atlanta] makes this impossible." She will be replaced by All My Children alumna Denise Vasi.

Reception

Initially the program received reasonable ratings. The two-hour premiere gained a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 2.8 million total viewers. It also scored a slightly higher 2.0 rating in the 18-34 female demographic.

The show was tested as a movie before being turned into a 12-episode series. Executive director Olde reports that "TV, sometimes, under the best of circumstances, is a gut business," and went on to say that, after testing the script, the response was good enough for them to develop it into the series.

Critical reception was not too favourable, Media Life Magazine reporter Tom Conroy reported that, "The female characters are either one-note (Keisha), inscrutable (April) or incoherent (Val). It's unfair to blame the actresses. The writers are the ones who can't decide if Val, for example, is the kind of girl who would make men wait 90 days or the kind of girl who would use a phrase like "tap this" referring to herself."

Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times reports that ""Single Ladies" has issues with black men, who are depicted as way too self-regarding, and blond women, who are simply taking up too much space on the planet. Not altogether predictably, the show reserves a certain kindness for that forgotten minority: the boyish white man. Apparently "Single Ladies" has yet to see "The Hangover Part II"." Hank Steuver of the Washington Post said that, "It's the TV equivalent of a beach read with no words. Even if "Single Ladies" can be enjoyed in some basic brainless way (and even though it's safely sequestered on VH1, where standards are aggressively low), there's something steadfastly embarrassing about it."

Britni Danielle of clutchmagonline.com said "VH1 released the trailer for its new show, "Single Ladies" over the weekend and it looks promising!" and went on to say that "With shows like "Basketball Wives," "What Chili Wants," and "Lets Talk About Pep," VH1 has been trying hard to produce (reality) shows that appeal to Black women. Let's hope this new one is worth our time."

David Hinckley of the NYDailyNews.com said "In any case, "Single Ladies" has stretches when it gets stuck in its own cliches and must fight its way through the soap suds." going on to add, "But it comes out the other side not looking half-bad. By the end of the first episode, it has created three distinct characters whose vulnerability and basic decency make us like them in spite of some obvious flaws." He went on to say, "There's a lot of soap, and the dialogue can make you wince. But the characters just might make you care."