{"id":253403,"date":"2026-06-03T07:31:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253403\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T07:31:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:31:28","slug":"bet-board-of-advisers-includes-queen-latifah-ll-cool-j-bob-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/253403\/","title":{"rendered":"BET Board of Advisers Includes Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Bob Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tParamount Skydance\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/bet\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bet\" data-tag=\"bet\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BET<\/a> has formed its first board of advisers, saying the group of six \u201ccultural icons, business leaders and industry visionaries\u201d will help guide the brand\u2019s \u201ccontinued evolution as a force at the intersection of media, community and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe six members on the inaugural BET board of advisers are: BET founder Bob Johnson; <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/queen-latifah\/\" id=\"auto-tag_queen-latifah\" data-tag=\"queen-latifah\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Queen Latifah<\/a>, Grammy-winning artist, actress, producer and entrepreneur; <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/ll-cool-j\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ll-cool-j\" data-tag=\"ll-cool-j\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LL Cool J<\/a>, artist, actor and entrepreneur and Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame inductee; Troy Vincent, the NFL\u2019s executive vice president of football operations; Raymond J. McGuire, president of financial advisory and asset management firm Lazard; and George Cheeks, chair of TV Media at Paramount Skydance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe advisory board will serve as \u201ca strategic and cultural sounding board, offering insight, perspective, and accountability as BET expands its reach and continues to champion the voices and stories that move culture forward,\u201d according to BET\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe move comes under big changes recently at BET under Paramount Skydance. Next month, <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/bet-plus-shutting-down-paramount-skydance-acquires-tyler-perry-stake-1236687482\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BET\u00a0is shutting down BET+<\/a>, whereupon the streaming service\u2019s content will merge with the parent company\u2019s flagship Paramount+. In addition, Paramount acquired Tyler Perry\u2018s 25% ownership stake in BET+.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tLast December, longtime BET exec <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/scott-mills-exiting-bet-louis-carr-president-1236598869\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scott Mills announced his exit<\/a> after 23 years with the company, coming a few months after David Ellison\u2019s Skydance Media completed its takeover of Paramount Global. Louis Carr, previously BET\u2018s president of media sales, took over as president, reporting to Cheeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tJohnson\u2019s appointment to the new BET advisory board formally brings him back into the company\u2019s fold two decades after he departed as CEO. Johnson sold Black Entertainment Television to Viacom (a predecessor company to Paramount Skydance) <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2000\/tv\/news\/bet-bought-1117788735\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in a stock deal worth $3 billion<\/a> that closed in 2001, making the media mogul a billionaire. He remained CEO of BET until 2006. Johnson subsequently formed RLJ Entertainment, which operated British TV and film streamer Acorn TV and UMC (Urban Movie Channel); <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2018\/digital\/news\/amc-networks-acquires-rlj-entertainment-in-60-million-deal-1202710248\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AMC Global Media bought out RLJ Entertainment in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tCarr, in a statement about the new advisory board, said, \u201cBET has always been more than a platform. It is a cultural institution with a responsibility to serve, reflect and advance our community. As we enter this next chapter, this board brings together leaders whose influence, perspective and integrity will help ensure we continue to honor that responsibility while building what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount Skydance\u2019s BET has formed its first board of advisers, saying the group of six \u201ccultural icons, business&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[18806,40649,9,24,63,34055,122,124,123,98816],"class_list":["post-253403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-bet","tag-ll-cool-j","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queen-latifah","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-robert-johnson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}