The BET Soul Train Awards 2022 are here! The ceremony, which celebrates the best in soul, R&B and hip-hop music, premieres Saturday, November 26, hosted by award-winning comedian and actor Deon Cole.
This is Cole's first time hosting the awards show, a moment he describes to ABC Audio as "surreal."
"I was a writer for that show for a couple of years," he shares. "I wrote for Wendy Williams and Erykah Badu when they hosted and to go from writer to hosting, it's a big deal in my career."
Despite having written for prior hosts, Cole says he didn't seek out any advice for the new gig.
"Nah, nobody hit me up. I ain't hit them up neither. The whole time I was writing for them, I was like, this is what I would do," he says with a laugh. "So I just did what I thought I would, you know, what I should do."
So, what can viewers expect from him as a host?
"Just spontaneity," Cole shares. "Just me being... quick, fast and letting the energy and the flow just go."
"Not being confined to the norm and what people really are used to at awards show. Kinda Just being off the grid and just having fun, bringing fun back," he explains. "That's exactly where my whole method was...to bring fun back to award shows and be a host that is fun -- have people laughing and not so stuck to the script. So that's what we basically did. And man we had a ball."
And when it comes to performances, viewers will be just as entertained.
"I can't wait for people to see these performances. People gonna talk about these performances for a while," Cole teases.