Jump To Arsenio Hall's Stats
For five years – from 1989 through 1994 – Arsenio Hall kept folks laughing with his cutting edge, easy going humor as the host of The Arsenio Hall Show. Hall was able to ignite a younger audience that was looking for late night talk show host humor that catered more toward themselves. With his only real competition the ever-popular Johnny Carson, his numbers blossomed and his ratings spiked.
In 1992 though, the late-night, talk show rivals started up with Carson's retirement. Leno took over the Burbank-based operation while David Letterman jumped ship and went to CBS in the same time slot. Even though Hall promised that he would kick Leno's ass in a ratings war, his prognostication never came close to fruition. As his numbers plummeted and the Leno-Letterman wars raged, Hall got a little edgy with his distribution company. Shortly after he featured the then leader of the Nation of Islam against the whims of those in charge of his network system, Hall's talk show plug was pulled.
The Arsenio Hall show managed to gain great popularity during its run with appearances than few people would have tried. Hall managed to get presidential nominee Bill Clinton on his show in mid 1992. In addition, he talked the eventual two-term President into playing the saxophone for the Hall audience. He hosted a show with Magic Johnson when the Lakers star revealed his HIV infection. And he spent the entire hour interviewing Louis Farrakhan despite resistance from the advertisers and the affiliates. His trademark entrance for his monologue spurred a fad that continues to this day. Hall would run out to his spot twirling his fist high in the air and calling out WHOOT, WHOOT to the clamorous audience.
Post the talks show era, Hall continues to shine when he gets a role. He appeared with Eddie Murphy in a commercially successful movie called Coming to America. He has voiced the character Winston Zeddemore in the animated Ghostbusters series.
