BET has just announced that it will end 106 & Park, its long-running video countdown show, on December 19. The show will become “digital only,” says a release by BET president Stephen Hill, but that “I’m not trying to minimize it; this is a very big change.”
This is sad, theoretically, because it has become an institution since it first debuted 14 years ago; I can’t think of the show’s name without hearing Twista rap the line “Kicking it on the couch, at 106 & Park” in my head. (SIDEBAR: MIRI BEN-ARI, “HIP HOP VIOLINIST” HAHA.) Still, it never quite seemed to fully adapt to the way the internet changed the culture so quickly. (Remember Terrence J and Rocsi reading tweets off a screen in real time? Yikes.) It is also a reminder that if the viewership was dwindling, it had as much to do with the fact that the hosts have been progressively worse since the beginning as it does with the way the internet changed America’s viewing habits. This downward host trend started from when beloved founding hosts AJ Calloway and Marie “Free” Wright left in 2005, which caused a ripple of drama—AJ cried on-air while announcing their departure—and cast doubt on the show’s footing. (There were rumors at the time that the hosts left because they didn’t feel their salaries were commensurate with the show’s rampant popularity, and in a 2006 interview in Vibe, AJ admits that he worked there for two years with no contract, which is bananas.) Any sadness I felt at the announcement of 106’s cancellation was immediately tempered by remembering how current host Bow Wow made me nostalgic for Rocsi, and you know, something’s not right here.
Here are the 106 & Park hosts, ranked.
1. AJ
2. Free
3. Julissa
4. Rocsi