Usually a savory celebration of African-American accomplishment, this year’s BET Awards was a semi-circus. Human error in the ceremony’s blueprint produced a string of accidental awards, one being a messy mix-up between hostile exes Chris Brown and Rihanna.
Last night, instead of seeing a fantasy fulfilled, the ill-fated fan selected to present the award endured a nationally boradcasted nightmare. The poor girl’s fifteen minutes of fame were occupied by the awkward award screw-up that lasted just about that long; after reverently rewarding Chris Brown, the king of R&B with the ‘Viewers Choice’ award, the presenter quickly retracted her words and deemed Rihanna the winner.
As if mistaking former lovers caught in a domestic dispute wasn’t enough, the speaker thought the third time would be a charm when she finally asserted that Drake was the vocal victor. Drake made his way up to the stage to accept his trophy and state the obvious saying, “This is awkward”.
Little did he know, the confusion would become even more cumbersome for the champion who won by chance; after the award show ended, a BET rep announced that Chris Brown was indeed the award’s winner. BET attributed the tangle to human error and claimed that a producer put the wrong name on the teleprompter. Minutes of mid-show mayhem and this post-program revelation quickly turned the Shrine Auditorium in LA into a three-ring arena.
Click to see the gawky glitch!