Hence during the last two years of its syndication run, "best of" episodes were being used. As a matter of fact, where I live, Soul Train would come on at 2:00 in the morning.:
1. Don Cornelius stepping down as host is the most obvious one. DC was the "face of the brand" pretty much. It's kind of like how when Dick Clark stopped hosting American Bandstand and they got some younger, unknown guy to replace him. AB only lasted one more year (by this point, they were airing on the USA Network). It didn't help that In Living Color did that stinging parody sometime earlier in which everybody on Soul Train is elderly. DC's pretty open objectification of hip-hop meanwhile, made him look like he was loosing touch with the changing times.