BET Awards Info, Photos, Odds, More

The BET Awards drew some 4.3 million viewers across eight Viacom networks to its June 24 broadcast, landing the No. 1 cable awards show spot for the fourth consecutive year. Held at the Microsoft Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the show featured performances by Migos, Nicki Minaj, Jay Rock, Janelle Monae and Meek Mill with Miguel. During the broadcast, the BET Awards dominated Twitter with 9 out of the top 10 trending topics. Social media engagement peaked during Meek Mill’s performance with Miguel.

The 18th edition of the BET Awards followed the annual weekend-long BET Experience, which brought together artists, sports stars, industry professionals and fans to events all over the city. But with the network’s contract with AEG, which owns and operates the Microsoft as well as Staples Center, up this year, as reported by Fortune, what does that mean for future BET Awards?

For the past 16 years, the BET Awards — a celebration of African-American achievement in music, movies, television and sports — have been held in Los Angeles. But at Sunday night’s awards fest, there were whispers backstage that BET is considering moving elsewhere.

Since 2013, the BET Awards and the BET Experience music festival leading up to the show have taken place at L.A. Live, a campus in downtown Los Angeles that includes the Staples Center, the Microsoft Theater, a movie theater, hotels, restaurants, a nightclub, and the Grammy Museum.

AEG owns L.A. Live, and its contract with the BET cable channel, which produces the awards, is ending.

An individual familiar with the matter who isn’t authorized to speak on behalf of the network, said backstage on Sunday night that management is considering making changes after former BET Networks chairman and CEO, Debra Lee, left in May.

The Grammys switched host cities from Los Angeles to New York for its 2018 edition, and the MTV Video Music Awards have tried various venues over the years, to varying degrees of success. But the BET Awards have for the last 17 years been held in Los Angeles. Only once, for its debut in 2001, was it held elsewhere: at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. Says Fass: “I think it’s exciting for these awards [shows] to change cities and not get stale.”

Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood star Alexis Skyy was among the celebrities that attended the 2018 BET Awards on Sunday