BET Networks To Air President Obama's State of The Union Address During 90-Minute Special Anchored By Jeff Johnson

Amidst the war on terror, the healthcare crisis, a struggling economy and the recent tragedy in Haiti, our first African American president, Barack Obama will stand before Congress on Wednesday, January 27 and deliver his first State of the Union Address. Beginning at 9:00 p.m.* BET,CENTRIC, and BET.com will carry BET NEWS PRESENTS: THE STATE OF THE UNION PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BLACK AMERICA, a 90-minute, LIVE special which will feature a roundtable discussion and a series of original taped packages featuring a wide range of celebrity and political voices. Broadcasting from The Newseum's HD studios in Washington, D.C., BET anchor Jeff Johnson will be joined by panelists Professor Marc Lamont Hill, Commentator John McWhorter andBET Senior Political Analyst Pamela Gentry to examine President Obama's first year in office and how the president's policies have been received by the Black community.

BET NEWS PRESENTS: THE STATE OF THE UNION PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BLACK AMERICA will feature exclusive interviews from a wide cross-section of African Americans including: Gabrielle Union, Jamal Simmons, Rep. Barbara Lee, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Cornell Belcher, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Al Sharpton, Trey Songz, Tara Setmayer, Charles M. Blow, Michaela Angela Davis, Taraji P. Henson, and Ryan Leslie. BET's special coverage will also include exclusive new poll numbers that reveal Black America's support of the president.

Jason Samuels serves as Executive Producer of BET NEWS PRESENTS: THE STATE OF THE UNION PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BLACK AMERICA.

Keith Brown is the Senior Vice President of BET News and Public Affairs.

For more information about BET NEWS PRESENTS: THE STATE OF THE UNION PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BLACK AMERICA please visit www.bet.com/news

*All times ET/PT.

About BET Networks

BET Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 98 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; CENTRIC, a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience; BET Digital Networks - BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and production company with festivals and live events spanning the globe; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET