BET President Apologizes for Chris Brown and Rihanna Award Mix-Up

Morning after the Sunday night, June 26 live telecast of BET Awards which was marred with Chris Brown and Rihanna mix-up, BET president Stephen Hill broke his silence. Responding to the issue on his Twitter, he took full responsibility for the error. 


"That BET Awards Viewer's Choice mix-up was due to human error. And I was the human that made that error," Stephen posted on Monday. He furthermore offered his apology, tweeting "I apologize to ALL affected." 


The confusion about who won Viewers' Choice Award happened near the end of the ceremony. Three presenters, one of them was a Nicki Minaj lucky fan, came to the stage to announce the lucky artist. Minaj's fan, Tiffany Green, read from iPad-like table device that the winner was Breezy. 


The teleprompter, however, displayed RiRi's name as the winner, prompting the audience to boo her. She quickly corrected her announcement, but it was Drake who was later called to accept the award. At that point, it was believed that Drizzy received the trophy on RiRi's behalf because she was absent from the show. 


After the incident, Tiffany defended herself, insisting it was BET which messed it up, not her. On Twitter, she wrote, "Bawling backstage. They totally f***ed me up. The tablet f***in said CHRIS BROWN....the TELEPROMPTER said Rihanna. What the F***?????? Goin home..... " 


2011 BET Awards was hosted by Kevin Hart. He clarified at the end of the ceremony that the true winner of the Viewers' Choice Award was indeed Breezy, not Rihanna or Drake. Beside winning Viewers' Choice, Breezy also bagged four more kudos; Video of the Year, FANdemonium Award, Best Male R&B Artist and Best Collaboration.