2012 was the year Arsenio Hall got back in the conversation. In May he won NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice, beating Clay Aiken in a finale broadcast live from New York’s American Museum of Natural History, while playing for the Magic Johnson Foundation.
The win put him back on the industry’s radar, and in June CBS Television Distribution announced it was developing a new syndicated late-night show with him for fall 2013. Hall had hosted The Arsenio Hall Show from 1989 to 1994, when it became a cultural landmark for Black audiences and hip-hop on late-night TV.
The revived Arsenio Hall Show premiered in September 2013 and ran for one season, but the comeback itself was a reminder of how much he meant to a generation of viewers.
Sources: Atlanta Black Star, CBS News.
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