BET Media Group hosted a panel on Thursday, June 7th, 2024, at the FYC House in Los Angeles to celebrate the creatives behind some of its hit shows. Scott Mills, the CEO and President of BET Media Group, shared that BET is experiencing a transition in their programming content which is best shown by the network’s spike in Emmy nominations. 2024 marks the most Emmy nominations the network has received to date.
To kick off the celebration, the first panel featured the Women of BET, led by EVP and General Manager of BET Studios, Aisha Summers-Burke (Resonant). The guest panel consisted of casting director Robi Reed (Malcolm X, Poetic Justice), Patricia “Ms. Pat” Williams (The Ms. Pat Show, The Degenerates), Mary Lou Belli (The Ms. Pat Show, Kingdom Business), Diarra Kilpatrick (Diarra from Detroit, American Koko) and Cynthia McWilliams (Average Joe, Prince of Peoria).
Each creative had unique answers to the questions being asked, with Williams boasting that “one of the reasons why I love being at BET is because BET is a network that allows me to be black as hell,” referencing the serious subject matter at the heart of her sitcom The Ms. Pat Show that would otherwise be censored or scrutinized at different networks.
Kilpatrick, the creator, writer, executive producer and star of Diarra in Detroit, shared that her inspiration for the show came from real events in Detroit where she grew up and a desire to feature a black woman at the heart of a private investigation storyline.
The second panel, Creatives of BET, followed the women’s discussion and was hosted by Clayton Davis (Variety Studio: Actors on Actors, Variety the Take). Guests on the panel featured Deon Cole (Black-ish, Average Joe), Jordan E. Cooper (The Ms. Pat Show, Pose), D.C. Young Fly (Celebrity Squares, Da’Partments), Kirk Franklin (Kingdom Business, The Hate You Give) and Oz Scott (Kingdom Business, Black Lightning).
Cooper shared that when working on The Ms. Pat Show pilot, Ms. Pat was originally at FOX, and he was still a senior in college. He continued to say that FOX wouldn’t consider him because he was young, but “Ms. Pat told me to take my name off [of the script] and they loved it.”
The panels concluded with applause and media photos. A rooftop reception followed afterward, with photo opportunities of BET’s hit shows and appearances from the panel guests.