BET CEO announces an indefinite pause of the Soul Train and Hip Hop Awards on TV

BET CEO Scott Mills confirms that the network will no longer present its annual Soul Train Awards and Hip Hop Awards.

Things are changing over at BET. In a recent interview with Billboard, the Black Entertainment Television network’s CEO, Scott Mills, reflected on BET’s history and the future of popular programs like the Soul Train Awards and the Hip Hop Awards. 

“For BET linear, we have suspended the Soul Train and Hip-Hop award shows,” Mills told the outlet. “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.” 

“I would say that 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,” he added. 

Since launching in 2006, the annual BET Hip Hop Awards has created a unique space for rap and hip-hop culture to take center stage. Through the years, the ceremony became one of the few nationally broadcast events where hip-hop’s full brilliance, from underground bar-smiths to arena headliners, got its flowers in real time.

Meanwhile, the Soul Train Awards carried the unmistakable fingerprints of Don Cornelius, the creator of the original Soul Train program. Since 1987, the show celebrated soul, R&B, and Black excellence over time, serving as a time capsule and love letter to Black music and the talent that shaped it. The suspension of these one-of-a-kind programs leaves a gap in the entertainment space for rising and legacy Black talent.

BET’s shelving of the programs comes after talks to sell the network from under the Paramount umbrella stalled over the past year. In 2023 and 2024, various groups and investors were rumored to be in talks to purchase the network from Paramount Global, including Byron Allen and Tyler Perry. At the time, talks of a possible acquisition stirred hope for renewed focus and investment in Black-owned storytelling.