JOSH RANTS ABOUT: 2009 BET AWARDS

Artwork promoting the 2009 BET Awards

So if you’re like me, last night you sat and watched the entire 2009 BET Awards — from pre-show, to main show, to post-show.

I watched it not because I thought it was amazingly awesome, but because it was a hot ass mess disaster that was too bad and too funny to turn away from.

Did a guy really get up on stage and thank his co-workers at Sears? Yes. Were there minors dancing on stage while Lil Wayne, Drake and others rapped about having sex with every girl in the world? Yes. (Chris Hanson, did you see that?) Did Don Cornelius‘ speech really occupy the entire third hour of the show? Hell, just about.

Since BET advertised the Awards these past few days as a tribute to Michael Jackson, much more people had their eyes on the show than ever before. Hell, even CNN was live at the red carpet, and they had better celebrity coverage than BET did. Ridiculous.

I was upset after watching the show — not because of how awful it was (that actually made me laugh) — I was upset because it was very apparent that BET basically used Michael’s name to get ratings. Why do I say that? Because the little tributes that were there were thrown together messes. Other than the Jamie Foxx/Ne-Yo tribute after Janet’s moving speech, the Rick James tribute from the show a few years back was better than what BET put together for the King of Pop.

BET, I know that Michael’s death was sudden, but that’s really no excuse. You had time to put together one excellent, all-star tribute to the King, and you had all eyes watching. But you failed — miserably.

You guys have got to do better, BET. And by better, I don’t mean editing out little girls from a To Catch A Predator-esque performance on the encore presentation.

The network may have won according to ratings, but BET will not have a future if it keeps putting out such a terrible quality of programming.

P.S. Joe Jackson, did you really shout out your record label on the red carpet? You are so fired. SMH.