The Soul Train Awards are coming back. BET will air the ceremony on 27 November, ending an absence that has run since 2023.
The show was not presented in 2024 or 2025, which for an awards ceremony is close to a terminal diagnosis. Award shows that skip two consecutive years usually do not come back at all, and the ones that do tend to return in a reduced form. This one is returning with its geography restored: the celebration moves back to Chicago, the city where Don Cornelius started Soul Train more than five decades ago.
BET President Louis Carr made the location part of the announcement. "As a Chicago native, I'm proud to bring the 'Soul Train Awards' back to the city where it all originated," he said, describing the return as reconnecting the artists who built the sound with the ones carrying it now.
The other name attached to the revival is the one that matters most to anyone who remembers the original programme. Tony Cornelius, son of the creator, spent decades at Don Cornelius Productions, rising to senior vice president and general manager, and worked extensively on Soul Train itself, on the awards and on the related television specials.
"Soul Train was created to give artists a place to be seen, heard and celebrated," he said of his father's programme, adding that the vision behind it continues to matter. He now runs the Don Cornelius Foundation as its president and founder.
The claim behind the ceremony is a real one rather than a branding exercise. Soul Train was a national showcase for Black music, dance and culture at a time when there was nowhere else on American television for any of it, and the awards extended that by honouring generations of R&B, soul and hip-hop performers rather than treating them as a category within someone else's show.
What has not been announced is everything a viewer would want to know next. No host has been named, no performers have been confirmed, and no categories or nominees have been published. Those will decide whether the return is a full revival or a one-off anniversary broadcast.
The ceremony airs on 27 November. Award dates and nominations as they land are tracked on award watch, and more rnb-soul coverage sits on our genre hub.
The facts
- The Soul Train Awards return to BET on 27 November 2026.
- The ceremony last aired in 2023.
- It was not presented in 2024 or 2025.
- The revived show returns to Chicago.
- BET President Louis Carr announced the return.
- Tony Cornelius, son of Don Cornelius, helped bring it back.
- No host, performers or categories have been named.
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