BET Hip Hop Awards Pulls in 3.5 Million Viewers

By R. Thomas Umstead
published

Black Entertainment Television's drew 3.5 million viewers for its Oct. 12 BET Hip Hop Awards event.

The audience for the event, which featured appearances by Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Diddy, Gucci Mane, MC Hammer, Soulja Boy, Digital Underground, Ice Cube, Salt n Pepa and Swizz Beatz, was down slightly from the 3.8 million viewers that tuned into last year's edition, and the 3.6 million watchers that tuned into the awards show in 2006, according to Nielsen.

The BET Hip Hop Awards 10 did post the franchise's best performance among women viewers 18 years and older, according to BET.
Follwing the awards, BET's new reality series Being Terry Kennedy, which follows the life of the professional skateboarder, drew 1.6 million viewers - the most watched BET series premiere of the year.
Both the BET Hip Hop Awards '10 and Being Terry Kennedy are the top two BET telecasts of the 2010-11 season, posting major audience gains versus the season-to-date Tuesday time slot averages, said the network.

R. Thomas Umstead
R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.