DETROIT — Lisa Brown is experiencing the highs and lows of growth as her Detroit-set series, “The Dirty D,” readies its Season 3 launch on Peacock.
Brown, the show’s writer, creator and producer, says positive reactions far outweighed negative ones when it was announced last month that the show, which centers on a Detroit nightclub rife with sex, money and drama, was moving from Tubi to the premium streaming service for its third season. The six-episode run will be released in two parts beginning Thursday, with the follow-up arriving July 11.
“A lot of people understood what this meant for all of us, and I was happy to see that,” says Brown, who launched “The Dirty D” on free streaming service Tubi in 2022. “It shocked me how many people were happy, proud and supportive. I thought it was going to be more of a backlash.”
While there was a contingent of fans who balked at the move to the paid streamer — and who let their voices be heard in various online comments sections — Brown thanks them for their support of the show and is now excited for the new chapter and what it means for her, her cast and her crew.
“It’s nothing to be scared of. What scares me is not growing,” Brown says. “That scares me to death, to be the same year after year after year? You’re just floating through life.”
Brown’s not floating, she’s moving forward with purpose. She’s started sketching out Seasons 4, 5 and 6 of “The Dirty D” in her head, and later this year she’ll get to work on an Atlanta-set spinoff, “The Dirty A.”
First up is Thursday’s bow, which she’ll celebrate with her “Dirty D” family at a release party Thursday night at The Shadow Gallery in Eastern Market. The event, $20, is open to the public, and includes a screening of the new season’s first episode.
Brown isn’t revealing much about the new season of the soapy series, which is full of backstabbing, double crosses and steamy sex scenes. “There’s going to be a lot of things that are completely unexpected,” Brown says, choosing her words carefully. “The Dirty D is going to be back open, I can say that. We meet a few new characters that will be very important, and we do have a couple deaths. Not everyone will make it out of this season, it just is what it is.”
The show is going forward without two cast members, Makeiva Albritten and James Perkins, who played Kyra and Terrance on the show and reportedly exited due to contract disputes. The departure of a third cast member, Phillip Granger, caused Brown to frantically rewrite the entire season before shooting started earlier this year.
But those obstacles pushed her even harder to succeed, she says.
“It put a fire in all of us, like ‘we have to pull this off,’ and I think it shows throughout the whole season,” Brown says. “I’m excited for people to see it. I think they’re gonna love it, I think it’s going to solidify that we are here to stay. Now that we have a more of a national platform, I don’t see why we wouldn’t be put in the same ring as ‘Power’ or ‘Empire.’ I think it’s going to give us a little more respect behind the brand.”
Peacock started airing the first two seasons of the show in November before inking a deal with Brown and her production company, Plush Productions, to be the series’ exclusive home for Season 3. The deal took a couple of months to hammer out, Brown says, and it was kept so hush-hush that most of her cast and crew didn’t find out about it until the news went public in May.
Brown says the move to Peacock, which boasts a subscriber base of 34 million users, is a huge vote of confidence for the series and her work.
“It’s really a huge accomplishment for me. Just to be independent, Black, a woman, a writer, a producer, an executive producer — all of these things bundled into one — has made me the first to do what I’m doing, and it’s such a wonderful feeling,” she says. “We are now stepping to a whole new fan base. Everything for me is a stepping stone. I never get too comfortable where I’m at, and I think that’s why I have been as successful as I am. Because I don’t ever want to be content.”
