BET execs are touting tonight's launch of Hip Hop vs. America a three-part series about the current state of hip hop culture, as evidence that the 27-year-old network has "grown up."

In coming weeks, the network will launch "Sunday Best," an "American Idol"-style gospel-singing competition; and "Exalted!," a series profiling ministers from across the country. On deck later this season: "Bufu," BET's first animated sketch series, co-created by comic actor Orlando Jones.

Music videos now constitute just less than 20 percent of BET's schedule, says Hudlin, 45.

"A lot of the frustration with BET in the past has been grounded in the lack of [genre] diversity of programming, and more specifically the lack of original programming," he says. Noting that BET's highest ratings come from its original programs, he says: "I want to show the full range of black life, to depict our full humanity. I want to do that in a variety of ways — through reality [series], news, animated, specials, you name it."

If Hip Hop vs. America, Sunday's Best and Bufu have matured the network several years, then We Got To Do Better and Take the Cake has certainly caused it to regress just as many. Which, if my calculations are correct, puts us about at status quo.

[WP]