BET tonight (April 27) will hold its network upfront presentation in New York as it looks to further cement its position as the industry’s leading brand for African American viewers. Recently named one of Viacom’s six core brands that the company will put its resources behind, BET is focused on creating quality, original scripted series and movies that it hopes will help thwart increased competition from entertainment-based cable networks looking to reach an African-American audience that watches more television than any other group.

Overall the network plans to increase its original programming lineup by 40% in 2017 with projects like The Bobby Brown Story, a  limited series inspired by the network's successful The New Edition Story mini-series.

BET CEO Debra Lee recently spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the network’s brand and its programming strategy heading into the upfronts.

MCN: What does Viacom’s naming of BET as one of its six core brands mean for the network’s brand?

DL: It's really great to be named as one of the six flagship brands for Viacom, and I think that just speaks to the fact that we're the premiere destination for African-Americans, and we have been for a long time. We have been the number one cable network for African-American viewers 18 to 49 for 16 consecutive years, and a top 20 ad-supported cable network for people 18 to 49, so I think that’s part of the recognition by Viacom as to how important our brand is and what it means. I think it's important what BET Networks is to our culture -- we're relevant, radically bold and we're fun -- and I think our audience expects that from us. Our audience sets the trend for not only black culture but culture in general. We are the most social and more engaged audience, so it's a great recognition by our parent company. We've done several upfront presentations in smaller venues and people are responding to us.

MCN: With a number of mainstream audiences developing content to reach African-American viewers, is this one of the most competitive environments in which to reach your target audience?

DL: It gets more competitive every year. I mean 37 years ago when BET started, we were the only network targeting this audience and I'm very proud of that. And over the years other networks have learned what we've always known; that our audience is engaged and are big TV watchers and they are very social. They set the trends and define pop culture, so you know we've seen more competition year in and year out. But competition makes the leaders stronger and that continues to happen. We see what other people are doing -- a network may have a black-targeted night once a week, or a couple of hours of black programming. We're one of the few networks that targets this audience 24 hours a day.

MCN: The network has stepped up its development of scripted programming in recent years. How important has that been in defining the BET brand?

DL: Twelve years ago when I took over as CEO of BET I promised our audience premium scripted programming, and I kept that promise with shows like The Game, Being Mary Jane, Real Husbands of Hollywood. This year we launched The Quad and Rebel, as well as [limited series] Madiba and our huge success with New Edition. So I've kept I've kept my word and now our audience expects high quality scripted programming from us. We also do some unscripted, but scripted really gives us a chance to be authentic and create drama from a storyline as opposed to a reality setting. And so we're going to continue to do that -- we're going to double down on biopics given the success of The New Edition Story with 29 million viewers over three nights.We're going to do The Bobby Brown Story with the same writing that we did New Edition. We have something called Death Row Chronicles which is a six-part look at Death Row Records, so we’re going to continue to tell these authentic stories. Overall we're going to have over 40 percent more original hours of programming going into this upfront. Viewers always wanted us to look like ABC or NBC and have high quality scripted programming, but we will also have talk shows and game shows and everything else so I think you'll see a nice mix.

MCN: Amid the success BET has had recently on the programming side, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask about recent network programming executive departures. Can you talk about what happened and what’s happening within the department going forward?

DL: Well you know there are always changes and so we did have some changes in our programming leadership. [BET senior vice president of specials, music programming and news] Connie Orlando is the head of programming -- she's been here a long time and she's done scripted and unscripted programming. She was put in charge of our tentpoles so she's been doing that for a couple of years running the BET Awards and some of our other big tent poles. So I'm really excited about Connie's new leadership and what she brings to the team.

MCN: What is your sense as to how strong the upfront will be for BET and for cable?

DL: People realize how important our audience is, and you mentioned how many other networks are aiming for this audience. So I think it’s going to be a strong upfront -- [advertisers] are excited to hear about the new Viacom and about the six flagship brands, and to hear what our individual strategies are. So I think it's going to be a good year for cable and especially for BET. One thing I haven’t mentioned is Centric TV. It’s being refreshed as BET Her, which will be the name of it going forward. We think this better aligns Centric with the BET flagship brand. It’s been a destination for African-American women 25 to 54 and we’re going to continue to service her through this channel. So now we’re going to have BET, BET Her, BET Jazz, BET Soul as our network portfolio. I’m really excited about that.

MCN: Will you look to build on BET’s presence on the digital front in 2017?

DL: Yes. We’re always looking at OTT and other digital opportunities because we want to be everywhere our audience is. The technology is changing so much that we always try to keep up, whether that's on iTunes, Netflix or other OTT offerings. We’re doing our first ever Black Twitter impact study. Black Twitter is such an important part of conversation and it really drives mainstream culture, so we've joined forces with Twitter to look at this more carefully and we're going to release the findings with Twitter. We just know it's such a powerful mechanism for our audience and there's a strong correlation between tweeting and watching live TV. So digital is really important to us and along with Viacom -- we're looking at ways to produce more digital content and how to service that audience better.

HBO was the big winner of this year’s NAMIC Vision Awards, the diversity organization announced Monday.

The premium service won five NAMIC Vision Awards -- which honor original, multiplatform television programming that reflects the ethnic and cultural diversity of the viewing audience -- including Best Comedy Series for its freshman show Insecure as well as Best Comedy Performance for the series’ star Issa Rae.

BET Networks, ESPN, and History each won two Vision Awards, which were all presented online. Winning programs are now being showcased via the 2017 NAMIC Vision Awards Winners Gallery.

In the best drama series category, ABC's primetime series, Secrets and Lies, tied with BET Networks' Being Mary Jane for top honors, with the best drama performance award going to Anika Noni Rose for her portrayal of Kizzy in History’s miniseries Roots.

“Congratulations are extended to the winners of the 2017 NAMIC Vision Awards," said Tisha Harris, president, NAMIC – Southern California and director, Programming, Z Living in a statement. "As our industry's consumer base becomes increasingly diverse, the production of ethnically and culturally relevant content is central to our industry's sustainability. NAMIC – Southern California in collaboration with NAMIC National is pleased to continue our tradition of recognizing achievements in the advancement of multiplatform programming diversity.”

The full list of 2017 NAMIC Vision Awards winners:

Animation

Disney Junior – Sofia the First

Awards & Honors

VH1 –  Hip Hop Honors: All Hail the Queens

Best Performance - Comedy          

HBO – Issa Rae: Insecure

Best Performance - Drama 

HISTORY – Anika Noni Rose: Roots

Children's     

Sprout – Nina’s World

Comedy         

HBO – Insecure

Daytime         

CBS – The Talk

Digital Media - Short Form 

Powerhouse Productions – Harlem on My Plate

Documentary

HISTORY – Roots: A New Vision

Drama(tie)

ABC – Secrets and Lies

BET Networks – Being Mary Jane

Foreign Language

Discovery Latin America / US Hispanic – Pancho Villa: Se Busca Vivo o Muerto

Lifestyle        

CNN – Special Projects: Breakthrough Women

News/Informational 

BET Networks – Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement

Original Movie or Special   

HBO – All the Way

Reality           

ESPN – SC Featured: Chubbtown

Reality - Social Issues         

ESPN –  Rise Up: A SportsCenter Special

Sports

HBO – Terrance Crawford: My Fight

Variety/Talk Show (tie)

HBO – Lemonade

National Geographic – StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson

PASADENA, Calif. -- BET has renewed its drama series Being Mary Jane for a fourth season, the network announced Wednesday at the Television Critics Association press tour.

Series star Gabrielle Union and BET president of programming Stephen Hill announced the renewal during BET’s morning TCA panel session.

The series, which follows the complicated life of a female journalist, ended its third season on a high note, generating 1.7 million viewers for its Dec. 15 finale.

Hill also announced BET will develop a miniseries based on Nelson Mandela starring Laurence Fishburne.

Visit our TCA16 page for more coverage from TCA's Winter Tour in Pasadena.

BET scripted series Being Mary Jane ended its third season on a high note, generating 1.7 million viewers for its Dec. 15 finale.

The season three finale of the series, which stars Gabrielle Union, also drew 860,000 viewers in the 18-49 demo, making it Tuesday night’s top cable drama series among both adults 18-49 ad women 18-49 for the season, said network officials. Being Mary Jane also finished as the top scripted cable series among Black viewers 18-49 for three seasons running, according to BET.  

On a Nielsen Live +3 ratings basis, Being Mary Jane averaged 2.54 million viewers through its first nine episodes, a lift of 55% over its Live+same day rating, according to BET.

BET has yet to announce a fourth season for Being Mary Jane, which also stars Richard Roundtree, Margaret Avery, Lisa Vidal, Richard Brooks, Raven Goodwin, B.J. Britt, Aaron D. Spears, Latarsha Rose and Stephen Bishop.

With the 2014-15 television season now in the books, a recent Ratings Intelligence report revealed that three of the top five highest-rated broadcast dramas of 2015 featured a predominately African-American cast or was headed by an African-American actor/actress: Empire, How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal.

With the success of those broadcast TV shows as well as cable series such as Power, Being Mary Jane and the Haves and Have Nots featuring predominately African-American cast or lead actors, it’s hard to believe there was a time when such images weren’t a major part of the television landscape.

Yet a recent Paley Center Tribute to African-American Achievements in Television reminded the many actors, writers and network executives in attendance how far African-Americans have come in portraying their stories and their images on the small screen.

Oprah Winfrey, who has been a mainstay on television for more than 30 years, spoke during the Paley Center tribute about a period in the early 1950s through late 1960s when there were no TV shows featuring an African-American actor or actresses in a starring or supporting role.

To have come from that point through the 1970s and 1980s when a few shows like Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons,Good Times and eventually The Cosby Show began to showcase African-American images and stories, to today’s array of programs showcasing African Americans across multiple platforms is not lost on the veteran actors and actresses who lived through those often lean times.

Antonio Fargas, best known for his role as the iconic, streetwise informant Huggy Bear on the 1970s crime drama Starsky & Hutch and who has been embraced by contemporary audiences through appearances on Everybody Hates Chris and most recently on Showtime’s House of Lies, recently told Multichannel News that he’s impressed with the strides African-Americans have made on TV.

   “For me I know whose shoulders I stand on. To now know that I’m a young pioneer in TV history because of the opportunities that I had in the 1970s is special," said Fargas, who is currently serving as brand ambassador for the vintage TV network Cozi Tv. "[Today’s performers] gave me opportunities in their shows because they wanted to say thank you for the shoulders that I gave them.” 

The other message heard loud and clear at the Paley Center tribute was that the beat must go on for African-American images on TV beyond Scandal, Empire and Black-ish.  

“It’s imperative that we keep telling our stories because our experiences are so broad, rich and multifaceted – there isn’t one way to be Black or ish,” said Winfrey. “The more stories we share the more reflective we can be of the whole diverse African-American community.”

The Paley Center will present an exclusive season two premiere screening of BET's Being Mary Jane, featuring creator and executive producer Mara Brock Akil, on Dec. 11 in Beverly Hills.

Executive produced and directed by Salim Akil, season two is set to return on Feb. 3 at 10 p.m.

Guest stars for the new season include, Gary Dourdan, Chris Spencer, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Christina Vidal, Kyle Massey, Thomas Q. Jones and S. Epatha Merkerson.

Paley Center member tickets are on sale for $15, and they are open to the public for $25. 

Networks and content providers looking to reach multicultural viewers are turning to the drama category to lure audiences with shows featuring heavily multi-ethnic casts.

BET’s Being Mary Jane and OWN’s The Haves and the Have Nots are drawing big ratings, while new offerings like Hulu’s East Los High and Starz’ upcoming drama Power are showcasing multi-ethnic casts they hope will appeal not only to minority viewers but also to mainstream audiences.

“What will make great television is to put programming on the screen that is reflective of where people are and where we are as a society today,” Erik Logan, co-president of OWN, said.

Drama series — particularly serials — are among the most popular genres on television. While shows like ABC’s Scandal, Fox’s Sleepy Hollow and Lifetime’s Devious Maids feature multicultural characters in leading roles, few dramas on cable or broadcast feature predominately multicultural casts, even though African-American and Hispanic viewers consume more television than white viewers.

Much of that has to do with the various cable and broadcast outlets not fully recognizing the appeal of telling dramatic stories through the eyes and experiences of people from all backgrounds and ethnicities, said Courtney Kemp Agboh, creator of Starz’s Power. The series, which debuts June 7 and features a multi-ethnic cast, follows the life of James “Ghost” St. Patrick, a wealthy New York nightclub owner who leads a double life as the kingpin of the most lucrative drug network in the city.

“One of the great things that Grey’s Anatomy and shows like that did is to show people that there’s actually a market here,” Agboh, who also serves as executive producer of The Good Wife, said. “Everyone wants to see themselves on TV, and they also want to see worlds that look like the world that they’re in.”

OWN’s Logan attributes the success of The Haves and the Have Nots to its diverse cast reflecting presentday society, as well as to series producer Tyler Perry’s strong storylines. The Haves and the Have Nots showcases a struggling but proud African-American family and its members’ often-rocky relationship with two rich and powerful white families. The sophomore series has become the most-watched scripted series in OWN history, averaging nearly 3 million viewers.

“From a society point of view and from a cultural point of view, The Haves certainly offers that reflection,” Logan said. “So many people can relate to either themselves or they know somebody that they can relate to through one of them.”

BET’s Being Mary Jane and Hulu’s East Los High take the trend a step further by offering predominately African- American and Hispanic casts, respectively.

Being Mary Jane, about a TV journalist (Gabrielle Union) and her struggles to balance professional, personal and family obligations, averaged 3.7 million viewers in its freshman season. The network last month renewed it for a second season.

BET CEO Debra Lee said the show is a perfect fit for the network’s target audience of African-American female viewers, who want strong, story-driven shows that reflect their experiences.

“Our first one-hour drama exceeded all of our expectations and really turned into a must-see series on a weekly basis for our audience,” Lee said.

Hulu’s East Los High, one of the few TV shows to feature an all-Latino cast, was originally an acquisition for the OTT service. But the success of the show, about Latino high-school students in L.A., prompted Hulu to pick up production of the second season as part of its original series lineup, Rodrigo Mazon, content acquisition director for Hulu, said.

“It was incredibly successful for us when we premiered it last summer,” Mazon said. “It had a great vibe around it as an authentic show. It had an all-Latino cast, but its appeal was much broader than the Hispanic audience. The fact that it was telling a popular, mainstream, high school story that could happen [in] any other place made it very appealing.”

The show also helped build audience for Hulu’s Latino offering, which aggregates all of the OTT service’s Hispanic-targeted programming. “When we launched this show, we saw a tremendous influx of new Hispanic viewers,” Mazon said. “Not only did the show do well, but all of the Latino content saw a great lift.”