After spending most of the night waiting for a ‘tribute’ to the late Michael Jackson that never materialized I am thoroughly annoyed at the network that as known as Black Entertainment Television. Not just annoyed but I better add perplexed, vexed and a bit ashamed and perhaps dumbfounded to the mix too. The network did both a disservice to its audience as well as the Jackson family for what, a ratings gambit? Debra Lee, I hope you’re happy. I can guarantee you that I am not the only viewer who was not. We won’t soon forget the tribute that wasn’t (especially when we get to see some real honest-to-goodness ones). Hey Cathy Hughes are you listening?

Anyway, I had my doubts about host Jaime Foxx’s ability to pull this off in the first place. I am still looking at him with one eyebrow up after that whole Miley Cyrus incident and then his PDA with Halle at the Spike TV Guy Awards didn’t help matters much. So having him invoke the name of MJ in-between plugs for his tour and multiple performances shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Okay so the moonwalk and opening scene with him were cute but after that….(well you saw it—and if you didn’t I can’t recommend wasting your time). And if you peeped the clip of the Wanda and Sheneneh faux movie the tackiness was palpable (dare I say it made Madea look like a class act).

Now the show wasn’t all bad but if you can practically count the great performances/moments on one hand and there are over 180 minutes to choose from it doesn’t average out to many good moment per hour. And this year the majority of the good stuff came from the brothers. But before I get to that let me go back to the Michael-specific moments. Although they didn’t blow me out of the water, I was still happy to see New Edition open the show with some vintage J5 (crazy Bobby Brown and all). Ne-Yo did a decent rendition of “Lady in My Life”. Then young Keke Palmer (Akeelah or True Jackson to you) showed she had some pipes of her own when she did an acapella rendition of “Who’s Loving You” before the presentation of an award. Plus, instead of letting Ciara offer a tribute to MJ through a dance number (her strength) someone thought it a good idea to let her sing “Heal the World”.

That was it tribute-wise (unless you count the random shout outs) until Janet came out at the end of the show to deliver heartfelt words on behalf of the family. Her very appearancce (obviously trying to hold it together) had the viewing and auditorium audience in tears. She walked out after a Drake, Lil’ Wayne performance—which made actually no sense. You’d think that the run of show would have been reordered once folks knew Janet was set to speak. But chalk it up to the ludicrous nature of the whole show. Anyway, Janet’s words would have been a fitting way to end the show but then Jaime and Ne-Yo sang “I’ll Be There.” That wasn’t the problem. But what was problematic is that Foxx (and perhaps P&G) thought it was a good idea to transition from that poignant and painful moment to the fluff of a obviously sponsored after-show. One in which Queen Latifah is talking about how to get red carpet worthy makeup looks with the Cover Girl Queen Collection a mere minutes after Janet spoke. To say it was in poor taste is an understatement.
What did save the show for most viewers? The real tribute, which was for The Whispers The O’Jay’s. Tevin Campbell, Tyrese, Johnny Gill and Trey Songz were well rehearsed and quite entertaining. But the actually group was even better (even if Eddie LeVert has a potty mouth—even when describing an encounter with the King of Pop). Almost as good: Keith Sweat, BBD and Guy (although some would beg to differ) in the guy group equivalent to what Alicia Keys did last year with En Vogue, SWV and TLC last year. Some folks were missing Jodeci but that prospect might have been a little scary if you ask me. (About as scary as that “Baby Boy” segment gone left with Tyrese, Taraji and Ving.)  And sometime after the 3 hour mark Maxwell sang the hell out of “Pretty Wings” complete with feathers floating from the ceiling. But why didn’t they have him at least sing a Michael song too? Makes no sense to me. I am sure they would have had time if Don Cornelius didn’t ramble on and on (love him but just not appropriate). Plus let me not forget the solid performance Jay-Z delivered.

When it comes to the sisters the night was somewhat of a disappointment. Beyoncé pulled the wind machine, costume and song from her show and did “Ave Maria” (very Celine Dion in Las Vegas) and no MJ music. Although I love her, Keri Hilson, proved she’s not ready to stand in Bey’s shadow yet performance wise. Her song devolved into an off-key mess by the end. Monica outshone and outsung Keyshia Cole in their rendition of tk (and whoever introduced them threatened that Frankie, Keyshia’s mom might join them….scary). The Mary Mary/Queen Latifah collaboration on “God in Me” uninspired—hate to say that about gospel. (Plus the Queen’s extremely long weave was a bit of a distraction.)

If that weren’t enough the tone of the show was seriously impacted by the promos for BET’s upcoming shows: “Tiny and Toya” and “Frankie and Neffe”. One more embarrassing than the next. All this makes me wonder why BET calls this crap entertainment and when will we start demanding more?

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