Did Tyler Perry Buy BET? (Not So Fast)

Entertainment mogul (and Gone Girl standout) Tyler Perry, who has been recognized by Forbes as a billionaire and who pulled off one of the first successful production bubbles during the pandemic, is the subject of a recent report on BET that hasn’t checked out as valid.

However, signs do point towards the Madea creator potentially buying BET. In April, Perry went on record with Entertainment Tonight in response to louder-than-whispers assertions that he would soon take the cable channel from CBS/Paramount Global. Perry has, of course, long since been whipping up multiple series (including Ruthless and Bruh) for BET, and he made it clear that his desire to full-on own BET wasn’t simply from rumortown:

“Rumor No, it’s not a rumor,” Perry shared. “I’ve been there for four years now and had tremendous success. I wasn’t expecting this to happen, so, yes — if that is possible, I’m very, very interested in taking as much of it…”

He continued, “If it’s possible, I’m gonna take as much of it as I can.”

However, Perry is not the only interested buyer. Diddy would also love to get in on that, and it looks like another outlet jumped the gun and decided to report that Perry had a done deal. The report surfaced as a claimed exclusive from a site called TheStreamr, and although the report quickly spread, the Huffington Post’s Phil Lewis noted on Twitter that the report has evaporated: “Just FYI, the original report on this Tyler Perry BET news has been taken down.”

In other words, not so fast, Bruh. Although if Buff Perry has his way, the news could become real at some point, so stay tuned.