The show has been suspended as cultural history more broadly faces erasure at the institutional level. What should be built in its place?
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Apparently, the show’s TV ratings had been on the decline. The year after celebrating hip-hop’s golden anniversary in 2023, the show’s annual viewership fell off a steep cliff — down nearly 50% in 2024. The network hasn’t pulled the plug outright; “suspended” is how BET’s CEO Scott Mills described the current state of both its hip-hop and Soul Train award show franchises in an interview with Billboard. Yet, the announcement couldn’t have come at a more precarious time. The shelving of the show just so happens to coincide with the sale of Paramount Global, BET’s parent company, to Skydance Media — a merger cleared by the Federal Communications Commission after Paramount agreed to pony up $16 million to settle President Trump’s lawsuit against CBS’ 60 Minutes. Skydance also made a few concessions in the run-up to sealing that FCC deal, including a pledge to eliminate all of Paramount’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives: No more Office of Global Inclusion. No more aspirational goals “related to hiring female employees and employees of color.” No more annual bonus incentives for meeting said DEI goals.
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Truthfully, the BET HHAs were never hip-hop’s holy grail. The Source Awards had a legendary crack at that in the ‘90s; the Vibe Awards also gave it a respectable go. Both ultimately met the ill fate of print media. But BET’s 18-year run is deserving of some sort of recognition. It consistently beat all the so-called industry arbiters when it came to crowning rap’s up-and-coming. Now that it’s shelved, there’s a conversation worth having about why hip-hop has not been able to sustain a longer-running award show and why more public institutions haven’t flourished in its honor.
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The BET Hip Hop Awards cut the cord as DEI dies
Submitted 3 days ago by 9limmer@piefed.zip to hiphopheads@sopuli.xyz
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/01/g-s1-91314/bet-hip-hop-awards-dei-archival-history
jimmydoreisalefty@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This post reminded me of a video that Sabby Sabs made about the BET Hip Hop Awards in August 2025.
Fat Joe Ends the BET Hip Hop Awards? Network TV Is Dead [19:55 (19:43) | AUG 11 2025 | Sabby Sabs | youtu.be/FflwxfGnsPs]
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The Suspension of BET Awards and the Decline of Network TV
This video discusses the suspension of the BET Hip Hop Awards and Soul Train Awards, exploring the reasons behind it and what it signifies for the future of network television. It argues that while some blame Fat Joe for the decline in viewership, the issue is more complex and tied to the broader shift towards streaming services.
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Leftist news commentary & interviews. Fighting for political and social change. Sabby Sabs podcast is a part of Revolutionary Blackout Network.
9limmer@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Yeah, these old school award shows feel largely out of touch and in dire need of reimagining. In more normal times, I would have bet on investment in reworking the brand, which I hope is still happening behind the scenes. But with DEI, Black culture and history under direct attack now, it’s not looking good in the near future. On the upside, Black culture is less niche and in need of a separate award show in many ways. It punches way above its weight class with prominence as an economic engine with broad global influence. Something better will come along as creativity is often strengthened by resistance and hardship, and corporatization and money is often the death of it.