UPDATED AT 3:33 p.m: Black & Sexy co-creator Numa Perrier confirms to JETmag.com that the Web superstars did clinch a deal with HBO. Congrats and raise a toast to more diversity on the small screen.

Aficionados of Black cinema and television arts are ecstatic about the announcement of a TV deal involving Black & Sexy TV’s hit web series The Couple and powerhouse cable television network HBO. Rumor has it the deal will also involve legendary filmmaker Spike Lee as an executive producer. We are awaiting official word from The Couple, but want to let you know about the pending deal.

News first leaked Monday at Sundance Film Festival during the Blackhouse Digital Panel, which included Black & Sexy TV founders Dennis Dortch and Numa Perrier, actor Jay Ellis (The Game), Lena Waithe (Dear White People), Edwin Benton and was moderated by Brickson Diamond. The deal was revealed while Diamond and Dortch discussed the task of how to maneuver creative content to new platforms.

For those unfamiliar, the Black & Sexy TV original web series, starring Numa Perrier and Desmond Faison, follows a young Black couple, chronicling the everyday nuances of dating and living together in a hilariously fresh way. Some may recall the unprecedented 2012 Kickstarter campaign that surpassed an original $25,000 goal to raise more than $32,000 in an effort to turn the web series into a film.

Black & Sexy TV offers original programming that is intentionally and unapologetically for us and is responsible for creating breakout web series hits such as Roomieloverfriends—which is also produced by Awkward Black Girl’s Issa Rae, That Guy and a new docu-series Yellow, which explores the “pleasures and problems of the light skinned Black man.”

The development deal with HBO is said to still be in its early stages, but let’s cross our fingers in hopes that we’ll be seeing Black & Sexy TV, The Couple and, knock on wood, Spike Lee on our TV screens very soon.

About Marissa Wallace

Marissa Wallace is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist who delves into the multifaceted and rich fabric of Black arts and culture. Follow her on Twitter @MarsWall_ for more.