Arsenio returning to late night TV?

[justpassingthough]

The 18 to 49ers that do watch late night tend to Daily Show/Colbert Report, Chelsea Lately does well with the younger demographic too (especially women), and Adult Swim tends to take all of the 18 to 34 men- and I'm sure that Arsenio is smart enough to know that he has lost his appeal to the younger end of the demo anyway.

 

[ShawnHill1]

Arsenio's new show will likely be on a hodge-podge of Fox, CW, and MyNet afffiliates. Arsenio might get a little attention on the Fox affiliates if his show is good. With the the late-night talk show landscape as crowded as it is, combined with the fact that there's no way Arsenio will get the kind of stations he got with his first show, it's hard for me to predict success.

As I mentioned in the first post, the Tribune stations will get first right of refusal to carry this new show, and I assume that may include WGN America since virtually everything Tribune produces/distributes (with the exception of the current Family Feud when Tribune handled distribution) ends there anyway. It's also pretty likely that CBS' CW and My affiliates will carry Arsenio in those markets where Tribune doesn't have a station (Boston, Atlanta, and Tampa-St. Pete immediately come to mind). Tribune has Fox affiliates in Sacramento, Hartford, Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo, San Diego, Central Pennsylvania (Harrisburg-York), Indianapolis, and Seattle, but CBS also has stations in two of those same markets (Sacto and Seattle).

Although I was young when his original show aired (ages 9-14), I was always a fan...it was usually on here in Los Angeles (on KCOP) at 11pm for its first couple of years, but by the end, they pushed him down to 12:30am. Of course, if you missed any of the weeknight showings, there was "The Weekend Jam", which was a best-of compilation of that past week's episodes...easy to catch up if you couldn't stay up late and watch.

 

[FreddyE1977]

...so when will President Obama be appearing, and what instrument will he be playing? ???

What instruments does Romney play?

That was perhaps the most famous moment on Arsenio's prior show...the time
Bill Clinton came on and played his sax. Perhaps you don't recall.

 

[ding12]

Late night talk show or even daytime talk show would be competitive and it'd be an uphill climb.

If he went for a sitcom on TV Land, it'd be a lot easier and likely to succeed.

 

[1069_KIFR]

...so when will President Obama be appearing, and what instrument will he be playing? ???

What instruments does Romney play?

That was perhaps the most famous moment on Arsenio's prior show...the time
Bill Clinton came on and played his sax. Perhaps you don't recall.

Bill Blinton came on because he thought he was promised some SEX time, not SAX time!

 

[1069_KIFR]

Barack Obama won't play an instument, he'll just sing

 

[DToTheJ]

Maybe Romney might enlighten the viewers with a piece of "Amerciana"... :

 

[FreddyE1977]

The Clinton appearance was publicity gold for Arsenio. Still frames ended up on the front page
of many newspapers nationwide. Clinton was not half-bad with that thing either as I recall.

 

[WMC2006]

Here's some of that Clinton appearance on Arsenio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkUeb6zQFA

Don't forget that Dennis Miller also had a late night syndicated talk show that lasted for about 6 months in 1992. I enjoyed it. The following Monday, after his final show on Friday, he opened Arsenio's show (Dennis came out rather than Arsenio and did a quick monologue). I was trying to find it on Youtube but found only a few minutes of Arsenio interviewing Dennis.

 

[F.M.Hertz]

That was 20 years ago tonight. (June 3, 1992) Two weeks after Carson's last broadcast, and one of the pivotal moments in the Summer/Presidential campaign of '92.

 

[firepoint525]

Some CBS stations carried Arsenio Hall until Letterman started on the network either pushing his talk show past 1am or off the schedule.

Are these the CBS stations that also carried Pat Sajak's talk show, or did he get pushed off the schedule, too?
I sort of associate Arsenio's original show with FOX because it aired on my then-local FOX affiliate in the same time slot that Joan Rivers had occupied just a couple of years earlier.
By the way, Arsenio is something like 56 now. He, too, is no longer young and hip.

Still younger than Letterman or Leno, Conan is pushing 50, 18-49ers don't watch late night like they used to

But they weren't 56 (yet) when they first started their current hosting gigs.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Some CBS stations carried Arsenio Hall until Letterman started on the network either pushing his talk show past 1am or off the schedule.

Are these the CBS stations that also carried Pat Sajak's talk show, or did he get pushed off the schedule, too?
I sort of associate Arsenio's original show with FOX because it aired on my then-local FOX affiliate in the same time slot that Joan Rivers had occupied just a couple of years earlier.
By the way, Arsenio is something like 56 now. He, too, is no longer young and hip.

Still younger than Letterman or Leno, Conan is pushing 50, 18-49ers don't watch late night like they used to

But they weren't 56 (yet) when they first started their current hosting gigs.

Carson's audience when young when he began, and aged with him. Leno and Letterman's audiences have aged with them and will eventually be out of the 18-49 Demo. Who will be the 3rd generation of network late night if there will even be a third generation? (Carson was the 1st, Letterman and Leno are the 2nd)

 

[Ultimajock]

Carson's audience when young when he began, and aged with him. Leno and Letterman's audiences have aged with them and will eventually be out of the 18-49 Demo. Who will be the 3rd generation of network late night if there will even be a third generation? (Carson was the 1st, Letterman and Leno are the 2nd)

...no, Carson was the second and Letterman/Leno are the third. The first generation was Jerry Lester/Steve Allen/Ernie Kovacs/Jack Paar...

 

[rgseark2009]

4th Gen would be Jimmy Fallon/Jimmy Kimmel/Craig Ferguson/Conan O'Brian

 

[nomadcowatbk]

4th Gen would be Jimmy Fallon/Jimmy Kimmel/Craig Ferguson/Conan O'Brian

Conan isn't on Network TV anymore, Could either Jimmy move to 11:35 (10:35 central)?

 

[bigman2005]

4th Gen would be Jimmy Fallon/Jimmy Kimmel/Craig Ferguson/Conan O'Brian

Conan isn't on Network TV anymore, Could either Jimmy move to 11:35 (10:35 central)?

I say Conan takes Letterman's spot after he retires. Dave has great affection for Conan, and obviously feels bad after what Leno did to him.

 

[1069_KIFR]

Although, it was posted on here that Letterman will hand the show over to Craig Ferguson.

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Who will replace Leno? Jimmy Fallon doesn't want the job

 

[pab]

Who will replace Leno? Jimmy Fallon doesn't want the job

Since Joan Rivers never got her well-deserved shot at the job, and because after 20+ years of Leno the show needs to reinvent itself when he retires, I think they need a woman in the chair. If he steps down in the next couple of years I think "The Tonight Show with Ellen Degeneres" might be a good idea. If not, someone else in that vein.

 

[Bob1370]

"Anything in early fringe/prime access would be pretty risky as the timeslot is dominated by entertainment shows, game shows and successfully tested sitcoms."

Up to about 2010 I'd have agreed on that. But the game shows beyond Jeopardy and Wheel (which one station in a market almost always gets as a back-to-back package leaving everyone else out in the cold) don't seem to have a lot of strength, and the off-network sitcoms don't have the power they used to. Otherwise Seinfeld, which has been out of first-run production for 14 years now, wouldn't still be the strongest one of the pack. (Granted it was and is great, arguably the best of them all, but every show normally has a half-life in syndication and loses steam if something else with strength emerges to supplant it, and none of the later sitcoms has been able to take Jerry's crown.) So there's room now for something different in the 7-8 PM (6-7 Central) prime access slot bridging the network news and network prime time. An upbeat talk/variety hour with a familiar and well liked host with a high energy level might just be the ticket for a station that can't get the Wheel/Jeopardy package.

There are several hosts who could handle it successfully. Arsenio is one. Conan, if he chooses to leave TBS, is another. And why not Chelsea Handler? Kathy Griffin also comes to mind, although she might work still better at 11 PM after the news on Fox stations. What really might be interesting, whoever hosts a possible prime-acces talk/variety hour, is to produce the show in New York and have the show air LIVE at 7 PM on the East Coast, flubs and all, with the inherent spontaneity and excitement that would bring and only an engineer with a dump button and fast reflexes to protect the network from a @#$% moment.

Can't see Ellen DeGeneres wanting to move her show--she's too successful where she is in daytime.

As to the Tonight Show, whenever Jay Leno finally retires (my guess is when he hits 65 in about three years), Jimmy Fallon has earned right of first refusal by now and he'll be good if he takes it. I've never heard or read anything indicating he wouldn't take it if he got the offer. But if he doesn't want it, then watch the next generation of standups starting to get HBO specials and you may see who'll be doing NBC's 11:30 show. But that's another story...as is the question of who might succeed Letterman if he retires (he turns 65 this year, believe it or not...).