Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for BET.
BET CEO Scott Mills confirmed that the annual BET Soul Train and Hip-Hop award ceremonies have been suspended indefinitely, Billboard reports. The decision comes after layoffs across the business in July.
“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,” Mills said. “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.”
The Soul Train Awards debuted in 1987 and ran for nearly 40 years each November before they were skipped in 2024. The Hip-Hop Awards premiered in 2006 and was nearing its 20th anniversary.
While the BET Awards, NAACP Image Awards, and Stellar Awards will continue for the time being, Mills said that cable television networks will have to continue reckoning with the shifting entertainment industry.
“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?’” the CEO said.
In June, viewership of the 2025 BET Awards by 18-49 year-olds dropped nearly 50%, Billboard notes. According to Mills, the decline in viewership was partially due to an unusual change to this year’s show – the date was moved to a Monday at the beginning of the month. “What you’ll see in 2026 is us moving it right back to its traditional location, the last Sunday in June,” he said. “And we’ll bring the BET festival back as well.”
