Soul Train is back. You may or may not have noticed that Soul Train was gone. Back in the day Soul Train was essentially the first show to feature Black musicians and regular folks dancing on national television. Over time though, the format lost its luster as more media outlets sprang up to compete. By the mid-nineties, Don Cornelius was no longer the cool MC that he once was and the show went through a lot of changes in hosts and format until eventually they cancelled new production and just started to show re-runs late at night.
It was sad to see such an institution in black culture fall by the wayside which is why the show is re-launching on the new BET channel – Centric. The Soul Train Award ceremony will also be back after a two year hiatus. The concept behind the Centric channel is allegedly to fill the gap between the current BET channel’s incessant rump shaking videos, which is apparently what the young folks want to watch, (not sure who polled them) and mature programming to appeal to the 25 to 54 year old demographic. That age range seems to be large that it will be difficult to appeal to everyone. We’ll have to wait and see how the new Centric venture pans out.
Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard are on deck to host this year’s Soul Train Awards which will honor Chaka Khan and Charlie Wilson. Henson and Howard were out a couple of nights ago at the Soul Train Awards Pre-Party along with the usual BET suspects, Terrence J. and Rocsi from 106 and Park. Taraji, always a stunner, killed it in a bright red satin sheath dress. Rocsi did the basic New York palette of black and grey with a huge statement bag. Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelson and his wife, model Maya Haile, showed up to celebrate the re-birth of Soul as well. Haile rocked the boyfriend jean and structured shoulder blazer trend that’s so we keep hearing so much about. The Awards Ceremony itself will tape in early November and will air on November 29th on Centric. —— By: Cynthia G. Caban
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