Can Arsenio Hall Take Back Late Night?
In the late ‘80s, comedian and actor Arsenio Hall became a late-night TV trailblazer. He was young, black, and his Arsenio Hall Show had become a surprise hit. The show's ratings even beat out The Tonight Show from time to time -- which at that point was still hosted by the “King of Late Night,” Johnny Carson.
The Arsenio Hall Show went off the air in 1994 after facing increased competition from Jay Leno and Dave Letterman. Since then, Hall has done stints on sitcoms and celebrity reality shows. But tonight, he returns to the late-night airwaves — after almost 20 years — with a revamped version of The Arsenio Hall Show.
TV critic Eric Deggans joins Soundcheck to discuss Arsenio’s return, and to look back at the role that music and breaking artists played in the original show's success -- and eventual downfall.
Interview Highlights
Eric Deggans, on why The Arsenio Hall Show faltered after its immense popularity:
His competitors figured out that they could book all the people that he was booking, give them a bigger platform, and steal his thunder. Even though he was renowned for giving early breaks to artists that were popular among black people… Leno and Letterman just started booking those guests themselves, and they had bigger audiences. They were able to steal a lot of that uniqueness from his show that came from featuring people who normally were not featured.
On Hall’s ability to showcase stars not getting mainstream exposure:
MC Hammer was lighting up the clubs, the black clubs, lighting up black radio…. But white America didn’t really know who he was. It was before “U Can’t Touch This” became such a huge hit. To see a guy like that on television at a time when he couldn’t get on television anywhere else — even MTV wasn’t necessarily playing him — that was huge. That was amazing. And that happened a lot. We saw people like Guy. We saw people like Bobby Brown. Prince took over Arsenio Hall Show three different times.
On whether The Arsenio Hall Show’s chances for success this time around:
If I were a betting man, I hate to say it, but I would bet against him. There’s a lot of competition out there. He’s been out of the game a long time. You can even tell from that interview with Bill Clinton, his skills as a broadcaster are not necessarily why that show was so unique…. He’s still quite not that smooth — or at least he wasn’t 20 years ago. Let’s see what he does in this new show. But that’s the one thing that I think is going to be his stumbling block, his biggest challenge.
