Black Entertainment Television founder and CEO Robert Johnson officially stepped down from the chief executive post and handed the reins over to Debra Lee, the company's president and chief
operating officer, on Thursday. Johnson will assume the role of chairman, with plans to retire by January 2006 from the company he started in 1980. Lee has been with the Viacom-owned company 19
years, and will take on the title of chairman and CEO following Johnson's retirement next year, a BET spokeswoman said.
--David Kaplan