The Soul Train Awards are officially coming back, and BET is using the revival to address the same changing television landscape that helped send the show into hiatus.
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According to BET’s official announcement, the Soul Train Awards will return Friday, November 27 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET, while also airing on CBS for the first time in the ceremony’s history. BET Her, VH1, MTV2 and Logo will carry the special as well. The event will be taped in Chicago, bringing the celebration back to the city where Don Cornelius launched the original “Soul Train” television series in 1971.
That Chicago homecoming is more than a nostalgic choice. It brings the franchise back to its roots 55 years after Cornelius created a television platform that would become closely tied to generations of Black music, dance, fashion and culture.
“As a Chicago native, I’m proud to bring the ‘Soul Train Awards’ back to the city where it all originated,” BET president Louis Carr said in a statement. “Coming off a landmark year for BET, this return reaffirms what we do best: bringing our community together around the culture, and connecting the artists who built this sound to the ones carrying it forward.”
The return also answers one of the biggest questions surrounding the Soul Train Awards since the ceremony disappeared from BET’s schedule.
The last edition aired in 2023 with Keke Palmer as host. The show did not return in 2024, and in 2025 BET leadership publicly confirmed that both the Soul Train Awards and the BET Hip Hop Awards had been “suspended.”
The reason was not presented as a permanent cancellation. In a 2025 Billboard interview with then-BET CEO Scott Mills, Mills said the network was reconsidering how established award show franchises should operate as audiences increasingly move between cable, streaming, and other platforms.
“I would say that it’s less about them being no longer and more about our team having to reimagine them for this changing media landscape that we find ourselves in,” Mills said.
That explanation makes the structure of the 2026 comeback especially important. Instead of simply putting the same awards show back on BET and hoping audiences return, the company is expanding its reach.
CBS gives the Soul Train Awards access to broadcast television for the first time, while BET and several sister cable networks maintain its connection to the audience that has supported the franchise for years. The strategy appears to directly address the question BET was wrestling with when the show was paused: where should a legacy music franchise live when television audiences are no longer concentrated in one place?
BET is also making clear that viewers should not expect the exact same version of the Soul Train Awards they watched before the hiatus.
Connie Orlando, BET’s executive vice president of specials, music programming and music strategy, said the ceremony will be “reimagined” with a “bold new format.”
“The ‘Soul Train Awards’ has always been the home for R&B and soul,” Orlando said. “It’s about honoring the artists who shaped the genre while reinventing the night for where the music is headed.”
According to BET’s announcement, the telecast will blend “honorees who defined the sound with the artists carrying it forward, celebrating a legacy that has influenced American music since ‘Soul Train’ first went on the air in 1971. Performances, honorees, and host details will be announced in the coming weeks.”
That balance between legacy and what comes next could be exactly what the Soul Train Awards need.
There is also a strong musical argument for bringing the show back now. According to Luminate’s 2026 Midyear Report, R&B and hip hop continued to lead U.S. audio streaming during the first half of the year, accounting for approximately one out of every four streams. That gives BET a massive active audience for a franchise specifically designed to celebrate R&B, soul, and the artists connected to those traditions.
The partnership surrounding the revival further shows how BET is thinking beyond a traditional cable awards broadcast. Spotify is serving as the exclusive music streaming partner, while Toyota is attached as a major sponsor.
Spotify global head of music content and partnerships Joe Hadley called the return a “significant moment for R&B and soul,” reflecting the opportunity for the Soul Train Awards to connect television recognition with the way fans now discover and consume music digitally.
Toyota marketing communications vice president Dedra DeLilli also highlighted the cultural importance of bringing the franchise back, saying, “We’re proud to help bring this iconic platform back in a way that honors its legacy and the significance it continues to hold today.”
Jesse Collins Entertainment will once again produce the ceremony, with BET’s Connie Orlando serving as an executive producer alongside Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan Clay, according to BET’s official announcement. The production company has previously worked on the Soul Train Awards and several other major music and television events.
The timing of the comeback ultimately gives BET an opportunity to turn what looked like uncertainty into a reset.
When the Soul Train Awards went away, BET leadership said the company needed to determine how the franchise fit into a changing media world. Three years after its last ceremony, the answer appears to be broader rather than smaller: broadcast television through CBS, cable through BET and its sister networks, digital reach through Spotify, a refreshed creative format and a symbolic return to Chicago.
For a show built around connecting generations of Black music, that approach feels especially fitting. The Soul Train Awards do not have to choose between celebrating the artists who established R&B and soul and embracing the artists shaping their future. In 2026, the entire comeback is being built around doing both.
