Recently, he added another notch under his betlt with the Spring 2014 production of the ‘Deiwght Peters Show’ on Television Jamaica (TVJ) that was well received across the island. Friday night entertainment got new zeal because Peters, daring to be different, booked the guests people were curious about and this gave salons, sports bars and of course social media much to talk about weeks on end.
Hailing from Hayes in Clarendon, this former banking executive at Workers Bank is one of two sons for his parents – his father a businessman and his mother an office secretary. His brother is ten years his junior, so for a large part of his childhood, Peters was an only child which accounts a lot for his philosophy to stand out from the crowd. At Glenmiur High, the University of the West Indies and then the banking sector, he was always a sharp dresser, but no one could have predicted that a man who crunched numbers would one day make discovering fashion’s svelte models, his forte.
Recently Peters founded GDP Studios which was created to be the hub for his lifestyle content for television. “The first property entirely owned by me was the ‘Deiwght Peters Show’. I wanted to be involved in a project that reflected my personality and be a landscape changer.”
In mid March, television programming saw the injection of new blood when the ‘Deiwght Peters Show’ aired and though it was a mere six episodes, it left viewers hungry for a second season. So how did the CEO of Saint International end up with his own talk show and why was it so well received, especially in a prime time slot as Friday night?
“I came to debunk the myths and urban legends about these people who we have heard about for decades but didn’t know intimately, so through the show a lot of that was done. I am never one to shy away from challenges. I’m not an actor, that’s me. The questions that people were afraid to ask, I went there. People saw me afterwards and asked ‘Lawd Deiwght you really ask the people dem deh questions deh?’ or ‘I can’t believe you really went there’ but that is what they really wanted to know. Not the cookie cutter questions but the burning issues and the real stories behind the names.”
It was clear that he had a bonafide hit on his hands because his interviewing style was a refreshing change from what is currently seen on local television. “Your interviewing subjects have to trust you and trust that your motive is to understand and to represent their best interest. You have a responsibility to your audience as well as to the integrity of the show.” People from all walks of life were tuning in which was great news for Peters who admitted that every cent for the pilot-which was a very expensive undertaking-came from his own pocket. “Initially sponsors told me that I should wait, but I refused to postpone my dream.”