by: Alana Brown-Davis
In an extremely surprising move, it was announced this week that the Soul Train and BET Hip-Hop Awards would be canceled. In an interview with Billboard, BET CEO Scott Mills broke the news.
“So for BET linear, we have suspended the Soul Train and Hip-Hop award shows. But we have a team that’s actively thinking about where those award shows might best live as the media climate continues to evolve. They aren’t gone. And we also still have the NAACP Image Awards and the Stellar Awards.”
It seems that this change won’t be permanent although it is a bit of a burner to frequent viewers of the awards. The Soul Train Music Awards traces itself back to 1987 created by Soul Train emcee Don Cornelius to celebrate Black music. Originally, the show aired on various cable networks before moving to BET in the mid-2000s. The most recent airing was in November 2023 when actress Keke Palmer hosted.
The BET Hip-Hop Awards began airing in 2006, showcasing hip hop artists and music video directors. The first show was hosted by comedian Katt Williams in Atlanta. These awards shows have become seminal components of BET’s broadcasting in addition to their main seller the BET Awards. With rating metrics being down for the award shows over the years, this seems to be a decision created in conversation with streaming.
“It’s less about them being no longer and more about our team having to reimagine them for this changing media landscape that we find ourselves in. I think what we’re going to see are more people taking franchises and saying, ‘This might have started on linear television, but now I’m going to move it to another space. Do I move it to streaming? Or do I move it to another platform?’”