Overview
- BET announced the Soul Train Awards will air Friday, Nov. 27, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. ET and will be simulcast on CBS while also running on BET Her, VH1, MTV2 and LOGO.
- The 2026 ceremony will be taped in Chicago, the city where Don Cornelius launched Soul Train, marking a symbolic homecoming rather than a live broadcast.
- Spotify is the exclusive music streaming partner and Toyota is the exclusive automotive partner, and Jesse Collins Entertainment will produce the show with Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay serving as executive producers alongside BET’s Connie Orlando.
- The return ends a three-year broadcast pause after BET suspended the awards in 2024–25 to rethink the franchise, and executives say the 2026 edition will be a reimagined show with a new format; hosts, performers and honorees have not yet been announced.
- Soul Train began as a 1971 Chicago TV program and its awards started in 1987, and BET’s revival — paired with broad network carriage and streaming partnership — could widen exposure for R&B and soul and test a cross-platform model for legacy music shows.