Hosea Chanchez, Tia Mowry, Pooch Hall, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Brittany Daniel, and Coby Bell, the six original stars of The Game, reunited for dinner at Lucia’s in Los Angeles this past weekend, marking 20 years since the show’s October 2006 premiere and the cast’s first time together in nearly a decade. The gathering reportedly included a roundtable conversation touching on favorite episodes and the long-running fan debate over Team Melanie versus Team Derwin.
Created by Mara Brock Akil, The Game launched as a spinoff of Girlfriends and followed the personal and professional lives of players, managers, and partners connected to a professional football team. The show aired its first three seasons on The CW, where it was reportedly the number one broadcast show among African American adults, before being canceled despite strong ratings. BET picked it up in 2011, and the Season 4 premiere drew 7.7 million viewers, at the time reported as the highest-rated ad-supported sitcom telecast in cable television history. The series ran nine seasons total across both networks before a later revival on Paramount+ from 2021 to 2023 introduced a mix of legacy and newer characters.
The Game’s trajectory, canceled by a broadcast network despite strong Black viewership, then revived and record-breaking on a network built specifically around Black audiences, remains one of the clearer examples of how ratings data gets interpreted differently depending on which audience a network is prioritizing. Its path from cancellation to cable history also reflects a pattern that’s played out with other shows carrying large Black audiences: strong numbers alone don’t guarantee a network’s continued investment, but a dedicated platform willing to center that audience can turn the same show into a ratings landmark.
Wendy Raquel Robinson and Hosea Chanchez remain the only two cast members to appear across every iteration of the series, from its CW debut through its BET run. Later cast additions, including Brandy Norwood, Lauren London, and Jay Ellis, joined during the show’s BET seasons following Mowry and Hall’s departures after Season 5.
With the franchise having already proven it can be revived once, the reunion raises an obvious question for longtime fans: whether this dinner was simply a nostalgic gathering, or the first sign of something more.
