BET’S SUNDAY BEST Season Five Finale Achieves Highest Rating in Franchise History

NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — BET Networks’ SUNDAY BEST season five finale set records for the network, delivering 2.6 million viewers on Sunday, September 2nd, making it the #1 SUNDAY BEST telecast in BET Networks history. The telecast also ranks as a Top 3rd Quarter “Original Series” telecast in BET History, posting a +21% lift over its episode 11 lead-in at 8pm (1.8 vs. 1.5). The finale posted strong double-digit gains vs. all prior SUNDAY BEST  season finales: SB4 (+10%), SB3 (+80%), SB2 (+32%), SB1 (+39%).

SUNDAY BEST season five is now the highest rated season for the gospel series franchise, up +3% vs. season four, marking two consecutive SUNDAY BEST  seasons of year over year ratings gains. Competitively speaking, the SUNDAY BEST franchise has been the #1 gospel series on television for five years, continues to be cable’s #1 music competition series for the past two years and is the #1 reality competition series on cable this season. Every week, season five has topped all key African-American demographics on Sunday night across all broadcast and cable “non-sports” programs. Moreover, BET Networks is the #1 ad-supported cable network among African Americans for the fourth consecutive quarter.

After nine weeks of fierce competition, South Carolina’s very own Joshua Rogers went head-to-head with Kansas’ Alexis Spight, and proved he is Sunday’s Best and crowned victor of this season’s SUNDAY BEST. In addition to the coveted SUNDAY BEST title, Joshua Rogers will receive a national recording contract with Music World Gospel, a cash prize, and an exclusive prize from Ford. SUNDAY BEST season five is hosted by Kirk Franklin with celebrity judges Pastor Donnie McClurkin, Yolanda Adams and Cece Winans with vocal mentor Kim Burrell.

For continuous SUNDAY BEST updates, please visit www.bet.com/Sunday Best. Also, follow SUNDAY BEST on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BETSundayBest (hash tag: #BETSundayBest) and Facebook fan page at , 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 90 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 operates in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution.