On Jan. 11 the return of the popular show, “The Game” appeared on BET.

We all know the show was previously owned by the CW network, and has now been picked up by Black Entertainment Television, otherwise known as BET. Over the years the show had gained its popularity due to BET showing the reruns of seasons one and two, that were perviously viewed on CW.

According to ‘TV Series Finale’, the stint on the CW network ended due to low ratings that fell to a low average of about 1.68 million viewers, with a tiny 0.7 rating. With the low ratings, and little to no hype over the television series, CW chose to release the show from the network.

That’s where BET comes a year later, and saves the day by picking the show back up on its network with new episodes.

This left a lot of fans excited because this had become their favorite tv show; every girl could relate to Melanie, all the guys liked the football theme of the show, every mother could laugh at Tasha Mack’s tactics to protect her son while trying to make him famous, every couple could argue over Jason and Kelly’s relationship, and of course everyone loved Melanie and Derwin.

With BET picking the show back up, the fans were happy their favorite show was back, but they wanted it to be the same show, and not have BET change it around to something different.

BET kept the same writers and producers for the show, but the fact that the show was on this network left a little doubt in people’s minds.

Everybody tuned in, whether it was at a watch party with friends, or they wanted peace and quiet at home by themselves. I attended a watch party with my girlfriends, and while watching

I couldn’t help but notice that this show had completely changed.

Yes, the show picked up two years later in the plot line, but it seemed as though I was watching a generic “hollywood boogie” version of the show I used to love.

The first thing I noticed along with a lot of other people was the change in Kelly Pitts’ character. She went from a typical white, down-to-earth hollywood football wife/mother, to an overly made up, tacky, bitter ex-wife that is trying to stay relevant.

BET has her with her own reality show trying to emphasize how she has moved on from Jason, and she is a newly freed woman. But in reality she looks lonely, thirsty for attention, and desperate just like those other reality stars that have similar shows that Kelly is trying to portray.

We women can no longer relate to her story of trying to fight for her marriage, or supporting her husband, or being a good housewife.

BET has also downgraded Kelly Pitts’ role to only a “recurring character on the show,” according to an interview Brittany Daniels (who plays Kelly Pitts) did with ‘Vibe’ magazine.

She was only contracted to do six episodes, but agreed to 13 because of her love for the show and cast.

So I guess, we won’t be seeing that much more of Kelly Pitts’ character.

Another noticeable revamp was the change in love partners for Tasha Mack and Jason Pitts; what happened to Stacy Dash and Rick Foxx?

Stacy was the whole reason Kelly and Tasha’s friendship ended, and why Kelly and Jason’s marriage never got mended.

Now BET has made all that significance irrelevant, due to the fact those characters are no longer involved with the show.

And now Tasha is having relations with Terrance J, who is a sex symbol on the show. I’m not at all convinced by his character, and it seemed like a desperate play by BET to keep fans surprised, because nobody was expecting that move.

Something that raised eyebrows and made me question BET’s motive and credibility was the fact that they had Tasha Mack smoking a ‘black and mild’ blatantly on camera!

This was something that was pointless and did not need to shown, this just further provoked stereotypes for blacks, and makes black females look ghetto and non-classy. Tasha Mack used to be the strong, career driven single black mother, who always had it figured out, what was the point in having her smoking?

The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was the drama with Melanie and Derwin, yes, drama stays in their relationship, but the paternity test results was too much.

There was no reason to change the results of the test to it actually being Derwin’s baby, after Melanie had told him the opposite; that ending was unnecessary.

The only thing that seems the same is Jason’s money conscious, laid back character. Even Malik’s cousin T.T. has changed, he’s no longer the funny tag along assistant, now he’s against Malik and his tactics and he’s fallen deeply in love; it’s just not the same. Why is the show even called “The Game” anymore? In last week’s episode there was no reference of football mentioned or shown.

It seemed as though BET just went for the drama field surprise factor in the first episode. The show no longer seems realistic, BET tried to push the envelope of surprise too much, and it became annoying. I hope they just wanted to start the season off with a bang, and have the show become more of what we’re used to, because I want the old Game back.

It’s not fair, BET seems to be trying to play a game with “The Game” fans, I wonder who will win this one?

• Ashley Vaughn