Arsenio Hall says 'there's a space' for his new late-night show

Arsenio Hall, who will return as a late-night host, discusses coming back on 'Celebrity Apprentice' and starting a new show. Can he regain the woof woof woof?

June 19, 2012|By Scott Collins, Los Angeles Times

John Nagowski, president of CBS Television Distribution, which syndicates hits such as "Judge Judy," "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune," conceded that Hall will be re-entering a teeming marketplace. But he added: "No one's doing anything like what we did before" with Hall's show. "The advertiser wants 25 to 54. He's dead-on."

"It's risky, but we're going back to the guy who had the healthiest demos in late-night TV," said Sean Compton, president of programming and entertainment for Tribune Broadcasting. "This is the only guy who ever gave Johnny Carson a run for his money."

As for Hall, he says he's already brimming with plans for the new show, even though it won't premiere for another 15 months. Some ideas will be new; others will be updates of standbys from the old show.

Take, for example, the Dog Pound, which was a pop-culture signpost of the early 1990s. Hall would like to revive it — with a twist.

"I might," he said, "come up with another animal noise."