Essence Atkins says her return to primetime television is an answered prayer

Mondays are for Poppa’s House, a new sitcom starring Damon Wayans Sr., Damon Wayans Jr. and Essence Atkins. The show about a radio host who is challenged at work and at home premiered Oct. 21 and is an answered prayer for Essence, who wanted to get back on primetime television.

“It’s what I prayed for,” Essence told ABC Audio, noting it was hard to juggle jobs in Atlanta while being a mother to her son in LA. “It was very difficult personally to be away from my son and traveling back and forth every two weeks just to make sure that I would see him. And so the prayer was a job in LA and a schedule that’s conducive to being able to be present for my son as he’s 12, becoming a teenager.”

Essence has been acting for decades, with primetime gigs including Smart Guy, Half & Half and most recently Marlon, on which she worked with the elder Damon’s younger brother Marlon Wayans.

Asked about the differences between the two, Essence describes Marlon as the baby of a family with 10 children.

“He is vying for attention and he’s always trying to kind of make everyone else pay attention to him … because he has all of these siblings who’ve gone before him and been so monumental and iconic in what they’ve accomplished,” she says. “And so … he’s kind of in this perpetual state of proving himself.”

The elder Damon, on the other hand, “is way more kind of at ease in his skin in terms of he has nothing to prove,” Essence adds. “But they’re both brilliant. They’re both hilarious and they’re both really kind.”

Poppa’s House airs on CBS. 

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