BET President Louis Carr confirms return of Soul Train Awards as he lays out plans for network’s new era

Three months into his new gig, Carr has big ambitions for the network, from the return of the Soul Train Awards to community-focused programming.

Barely ninety days into his tenure as president of BET, Louis Carr is prepared to help shape the legacy network’s future.

Carr, who has served in various roles at the network for over four decades, succeeded Scott Mills last December in a move that stunned many outside the network, including the new president himself.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Carr told Forbes’s Jabari Young in a recent sitdown interview for “The Enterprise Zone” podcast.

“What I saw was: I’ve had an amazing career. It’s time to go do something else.”

The executive’s résumé reads like an ad agency’s dream. Before taking over as network president, Carr was primarily focused on ad sales. During his tenure, he and his team brought in over $10 billion in advertising revenue. Being a longtime steward of one of Black America’s most beloved entities isn’t lost on Carr, who understands the network will have to adapt, especially in the wake of recent changes.

In March, BET+, the network’s streaming platform, was absorbed into Paramount+, the streaming app for the network’s parent company. Paramount also purchased Tyler Perry’s stake in BET+. A highly publicized sports show with Cam Newton, dubbed “106 & Sports,” lasted only eight episodes and despite the clamor for beloved award shows like the Soul Train Awards and the BET Hip-Hop Awards to return, there’s a new mission statement and focus at the network.

“We have a new slogan out: BET is something you can believe in.”

In a different era of BET, there were shows like “Teen Summit” and “Ed Gordon” to help combat misinformation from proliferating in the community. With the vastness of the internet and the amplification of select voices, BET’s future also includes returning to one of its core missions: serving Black America at large and being focused on that initiative.

“We’ve decided the lanes that we’re going to play in,” Carr told Young. “Those lanes are community, culture, and connection.”

He added, “I think brands that serve Black consumers have to be engaged in the community. They expect that. They expect to be seen. They expect to be heard. They expect to be respected. And they expect to be understood, and we do that 24 hours a day. Our brand was created and led by black culture. That’s what we do, probably better than anybody else. We understand what’s going to be hot and what’s not anymore.”

“We’re just like every other media brand trying to figure it out,” Carr told Fortune’s Jabari Young. “What is the new paradigm, what is the new model we need to operate under… and that’s the exciting part. The excitement is, who’s the first to figure it out? I think that we have a better chance than most brands that are serving our community.”

Carr’s vision for the network includes more programming leaning toward sports and comedy, the latter of which was a staple for the network in the ’90s and early 2000s. Along with sports and comedy programming, the network is looking into microseries and microdramas and original series, a social program centered on mental health.

And the network is bringing back the Soul Train Awards, according to Carr.

“That’s the one,” he told Young, who was more than excited to hear the news. The show, which routinely celebrated the best in R&B, was put on an indefinite pause in 2025 along with the BET Hip-Hop Awards. “I think that’s the one everyone wants to come back.”

With four decades at the company under his belt, Carr has championed “reinvention and change” for his tenure. The network is entering a new chapter under the Paramount Skydance merger, while at the same time looking to bring new things and familiar ones back to the airwaves. It begs to be seen what BET will look and feel like as Carr begins his first full year in the position, but his ideas and desire seem poised to bring BET back to the forefront of Black consciousness.