The Arsenio Hall show will not be renewed for season 2 despite the fact that Arsenio is a huge talent.  The reincarnation of the Arsenio Hall Show show failed to pick up momentum with fans and simply wasn’t very good.  I watched from show number one with great anticipation hoping it would improve and it never did.  Although he should have been given a second season to fix the failure of the first, no one can argue with the decision to cancel of the show.  There were several legitimate reasons for the shows failure.

First, syndicated shows are never given the time needed to find their footing.  Stations are looking for immediate results and clearly that didn’t happen.  After opening with great expectations, viewership plummeted 60 percent with its key audience of 18-49 year olds.  Second, the show simply never figured out what it wanted to be.  The format was strange and undefined.  The original Arsenio Hall show, which was cancelled in 1994 after more than 5 years, was cool.  It brought a clear choice to an otherwise stodgy late night lineup.  Although Letterman was always great, Arsenio was clearly different, an alternative to the traditional light night format.  Third and perhaps most important, it failed to attract big name guests which can be attributed to the fact he was running fourth among late night shows.  If you’re an actor attempting to push a project, appearing on the fourth most popular show isn’t in your best interest.  The show with Prince, which was by far his best, was intriguing but too little, too late.  It was already doomed.

Arsenio is a great talent and I hope he finds a place somewhere either on the small or big screen because it’s where he belongs.  But whatever he does next, he needs to make sure that the project is worthy of his talent because this rendition of the Arsenio Hall show, wasn’t.