STARZ received four NAACP Image Awards this weekend, including Outstanding Drama Series for “P-Valley,” Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series for Nicco Annan as Uncle Clifford in “P-Valley,” Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Loretta Devine as Grandmuva Ernestine in “P-Valley,” and Outstanding Supporting Actor for Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith as lawyer Davis MacLean in “Power Book II: Ghost.” With these four wins, STARZ ties its own network record for NAACP Image Award wins in an eligible year. This is the first NAACP Image Award win for Nicco Annan. This is the second NAACP Image Award win for Loretta Devine for her role in “P-Valley” (previous win in 2021) and her tenth career NAACP Image Award win. This is the second NAACP Image Award win for Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith, and his first win was also for his role in “Power Book II: Ghost” in 2021.
In her remarks accepting the Outstanding Drama Series award for “P-Valley,” Creator, Writer, Director and Showrunner Katori Hall said “This trophy is for my Pynk Posse; this trophy is for the blue black boy who dance in his difference in the delta; this trophy is for the girls who crash through the ceiling and make falling into it feel like flight. I want to give a big thanks to our Lionsgate and STARZ ‘framily’ who gave us our one and only yes.”
Reflecting on the multiple wins, Kathryn Busby, President of Original Programming for STARZ said, “We could not feel more honored for our STARZ series and the actors who bring these stories to life to be seen and recognized by the NAACP. As the NAACP leadership said in their remarks across the Image Awards events this week: Images matter; art and storytelling matters. Congratulations to our “P-Valley” and “Power Book II: Ghost” families on this incredible recognition!”
In addition to being wildly popular with fans with over 10 million season two viewers, “P-Valley” boasts a 97% fresh rating with top critics on Rotten Tomatoes. It has already been greenlit for a third season. Season three of “Power Book II: Ghost” premieres March 17 on STARZ and is currently in production in New York City on season four. At the NAACP Image Awards dinner, NAACP President Derrick Johnson remarked on the importance of seeing an icon such as Method Man playing a lawyer on screen, rather than a criminal, and the importance of elevating black men through images on-screen.
About “P-Valley”
“P-Valley” is an hour-long drama that tells the kaleidoscopic story of a little-strip-club-that-could and the big characters who come through its doors – the hopeful, the lost, the broken, the ballers, the beautiful, and the damned. Set against the rural Mississippi Delta in the fictional town of Chucalissa, The Pynk is an oasis in a rough patch of human existence where beauty can be hard to find at the crossroads of grit and glitter. A story of survival, chosen family, soulmates, politics, love and death, “P-Valley” is where trap music meets film noir and dares to ask what happens when small-town folk dream beyond the boundaries of their limited circumstances.
In season two, “P-Valley” revealed a whole new Pynk as it struggled to remain open during a pandemic, a battle for the throne, and the possibility of some new blood shaking up the locker room. It took audiences deeper into the lives of the Pynk’s beloved characters as darkness descended upon Chucalissa.
“P-Valley” season two starred Nicco Annan (“Uncle Clifford”), Elarica Johnson (“Autumn Night”), Brandee Evans (“Mercedes”), Shannon Thornton (“Miss Mississippi”), J. Alphonse Nicholson (“Lil’ Murda”), Parker Sawyers (“Andre”), Harriett D. Foy (“Pastor Woodbine”), Dan J. Johnson (“Corbin”), Morocco Omari (“Big L.”), Dominic DeVore (“Duffy”), Tyler Lepley (“Diamond”), Jordan M. Cox (“Derrick”), Skyler Joy (“Gidget”), John Clarence Stewart (“Big Teak”), Miracle Watts (“Big Bone”), Shamika Cotton (“Farrah”), Gail Bean (“Roulette”) Psalms Salazar (“Whisper”) Loretta Devine (“Ernestine”), Thomas Q. Jones (“Mane”), and Bertram Williams, Jr. (“Woddy”).
About “Power Book II: Ghost”
“Power Book II: Ghost” is the first series in the expanded “Power” Universe franchise. In the upcoming third season, “Power Book II: Ghost” kicks off with Tariq St. Patrick determined to get his trust, get back to his family, and get out of the game for good. The emergence of a ruthless new connect interrupts Tariq’s plans to reunite with Tasha and Yaz and puts him, Brayden, and Effie back into business with the Tejadas as they’re challenged to move more weight than ever before. When Brayden brings Tariq in as an intern at his family’s hedge fund Weston Holdings, the drug business expands beyond Stansfield and the streets onto Wall Street, while Tariq is also shown an alternate, legitimate path to success. Monet Tejada, set ablaze by the death of her son Zeke Cross, is willing to pay a hefty price to avenge her firstborn and keep the rest of her children – and the business – in line as she works closely with Davis MacLean to solve Zeke’s murder and keep the feds off her trail. Business is booming when a staggering reveal forces Tariq to reckon with a betrayal from those closest to him… and a R.I.C.O. investigation mounting into the entire drug enterprise, pulling Tariq deeper into the business and even closer to the legacy of his father.