>From Chicago: A third less New York than the regular New York ... it's --------------------------------------------- LATE SHOW NEWS for Tuesday, March 29, 1994 Issue #7 A weekly electronic sheet by Aaron Barnhart --------------------------------------------- 4. THE VULTURES ARE IN THE HOOOOOOUSE!! Someone recently observed that _The Arsenio Hall Show_ is like a once-hot nightclub that has fallen out of favor with the crowds. During its meteoric rise in 1989, Hall's program leaped to number one among under-35 adults and ran Pat Sajak's CBS late show off the air. Since then, however, ratings have plummeted: down 20% in '92 and down another 24% last year. Media hoohaws were already forecasting trouble for the program when it crossed below the 3 Nielsen rating threshold. It was hovering near the 2 mark last month when Arsenio aired his hour-long interview with Minister Louis Farrakhan, an extraordinary media event that, to date, has apparently pleased only the host and his guest. More ominously, movie watchers Siskel and Ebert cancelled their annual post-Oscar appearance, guest Jon Voight took Hall to task on the show, and white and black editorialists alike abused him. It's said that no publicity is bad publicity, but the fallout from the Farrakhan show seems to be the exception. With the program's syndication deal expiring this year, this most recent incident in Arsenio's sometimes acrimonious relationship with show bidness has many industry people wondering out loud if management won't shutter his Night Thing for good at the end of 1994. Fortunately for Arsenio, the critics can kill a nightclub, but they alone can't kill a late-night t.v. show. Not anymore, at least. Times have changed since the days of _The Dick Cavett Show,_ another show that started out hot but faded fast. ABC replaced Cavett with a test pattern after only three seasons. These days, late night sells, and _The Arsenio Hall Show_ can generate a lot more money than a test pattern. Because it's syndicated, his show gives stations the chance to sell more local ads than the networks allow. In fact, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C. waited four months before scheduling Dave at his rightful time because it was making so much dough off of Arsenio at 11:35. The real problem Hall has faced in the past year, the one that is no doubt responsible for most of his share loss, is that he's been bumped by CBS affiliates to make room for Dave, and by Fox affiliates to accommodate the void that was once, briefly, Chevy Chase. Arsenio can still be seen on these stations, but at a later hour, when fewer people are watching t.v. and maintaining one's old rating is virtually impossible. For this reason we suspect the current wave of pessimism about Hall's show has less to do with its economic performance and more with its perception in Hollywood, which after all is the town Arsenio both reveres and lives in tension with. In particular, the triumphant arrival of the Letterman show seems to have inspired a lot of unfavorable comparisons between Dave and Arsenio and a mood that late night isn't big enough for them both. The fact is that Arsenio has got a lot of interesting things going on in the house that are worth catching, if only occasionally. But if you are a faithful _Late Show_ viewer, switching over to Arsenio can take some adjusting. For starters, both hosts place a high premium on keeping their shows spontaneous, but Dave does it because he gets the biggest laughs when he can react to the unexpected or the chaotic. Arsenio does it because that's how he creates good interviews. Maybe some of you tune into Dave for the interviews, but we don't. He's very good at them, but as he himself has put it, what he's looking for out of a guest is "four funny stories." Arsenio isn't. Each host's approach is rewarding in its own way. Arsenio is able to attract guests who know he will be a gentle questioner and an empathetic listener. ("This is a special show," he joked the other night. "I'm asking the *hard* questions.") Unfortunately, he also has stated his preference for the "unrehearsed," which means, quite frankly, that things sometimes just *die* on his show. We have gotten so accustomed to Dave's habit of driving away dead air and maintaining a steady decibel level that the sound of Arsenio's ventilation system, which is audibly present a handful of times each evening, is actually kind of spooky. (Overall, it must be said of Arsenio's show that the sound was sacrificed to the soundstage.) Then there is the matter of Hall's activism. It's interesting to talk to friends, both in our neighborhood and in cyberspace, about the politics of Arsenio. It seems for every one we find who was disgusted by his pampering of Farrakhan, another is convinced he is pandering to a white audience. He can't be doing both. There are other complaints. For a comedian, he sure doesn't have a very good delivery, and his jokes, particularly the ones about sex, are unsophisticated to say the least. But there are saving graces, too. He discusses political views with his guests and, more surprisingly, religious views. He brought rap and R&B performers into the limelight that no other show did, and many acts that have since gone on to big-time fame will, in gratitude to Arsenio, refuse to play any show before his. And to some of us, Hall's racially integrated vision does add to our viewing enjoyment. It compares to the glory days of Motown, though that earlier era was blessed with a spirit of innocent fun that Arsenio can't recapture, no matter how busy he gets. Still, it is clear that _The Arsenio Hall Show_ has lost its early sparkle, probably for good. While it might be a solid moneymaking vehicle for Hall Productions, Arsenio would be well advised to revamp it soon. He has apparently prepared all of his life to do talk t.v., since he first got hooked on the Carson show as a boy in a Cleveland ghetto. But that was before he ever dreamed of pulling in a $12 million salary. Having learned a lot about sacrifice growing up, it may be time for Arsenio Hall to put his nose to the grindstone again and reinvent the program that, as much as the Letterman show, made late-night television in the post-Carson era. 3. MEDIA BITES You may recall Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch stating, shortly after viewing New York radio demon Howard Stern's pay-per-view special on New Year's Eve, that Stern would *never* host a late show on *his* network. Apparently he meant Fox and not Fox's new cable channel launch, FX, because word is Howard's being offered a late show there instead. (Murdoch seems to want his late-night slot on Fox to fail. We're no fans of Stern but there's no sense in denying he has a better chance of survival than Joan Rivers, _The Wilton-North Report,_ or Chevy Chase ever did. The only thing that has worked for the fourth network in eight years of late-night television was a 13-week stint by none other than Arsenio Hall, who was launched as a host as a replacement host for the deposed Rivers.) Ironically, Stern may be able to wring more money out of Fox this way, since FX is a brand-new channel and would sorely like a big name to give it instant visibility. There was a Dave sighting this week: last Thursday he came crashing into middle America via the "Live With Regis And Kathie Lee" set. Bearing gifts in a shopping bag -- lovely flowers for Mrs. Gifford, half an unwrapped sandwich for Reege, and color prints of his mom in Norway for the audience -- Dave carried on for three minutes of the show's opening "host chat" sequence, spewing non sequiturs ("Sorry to barge in on rehearsal ... Where *is* Oprah? ... [To a caller:] Hi, it's Dave Letterman. Regis overslept. Between you and me, Jill, I think he's drinking again"), ruining the daily contest ("Jill, are you on the line for the trivia question? All right. The answer's Glenn Close. Enjoy the luggage"), and taking every opportunity possible to nuzzle the female co-host ("How are the twins?"). Dave looked like he'd been up about 15 minutes; he was, however, wearing one of his natty suits and didn't have his glasses on. 2. F.Y. EYES Dave's and Jay's respective road shows are all sold out ... Apparently that NBC "intellectual property" issue has been resolved: CBS Radio is packaging the nightly Top Ten list as a three-minute broadcast feature beginning April 1. It will offer the show to stations on a "barter basis," whatever the hell that means, and presumably sue stations that continue to replay the Top Ten list without permission ... Sissy Beggers, whom readers of Bill Carter's new book will remember as the NBC liaison to _Late Night_ who broke down and sobbed on hearing she had been disinvited to Dave's annual bash in 1992, may be getting her own talk show on the Lifetime channel ... CBS is now encoding extree-late-night infomercials that air on its company-owned stations with VCR Plus numbers and has already reported above-average response rates from viewers ... And _Late Show_ executive producer Marty Robbins will be sharing a beach house on Long Island with Conan producer Jeff Ross this summer. 1. THE LINEUPS LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, CBS, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 3/29 (not available) We 3/30 Martin Short, Sammy Hagar Th 3/31 Dennis Hopper, Counting Crows Fr 4/1 Charles Grodin, Elvis Costello and the Attractions Mo 4/4 Bob Uecker THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO, NBC, 11:35 P.M. EST Tu 3/29 Whoopi Goldberg, Celine Dion, rerun We 3/30 Patrick Stewart, Reba McEntire, rerun Th 3/31 Garth Brooks, Luke Perry, rerun Fr 4/1 Robin Williams, rerun Mo 4/4 Cocteau Twins LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, NBC, 12:35 A.M. EST Tu 3/29 Senator Bob Dole, Tisha Campbell, Possum Dixon, rerun We 3/30 Christie Brinkley, filmmakers the Jouberts, Barenaked Ladies, rerun Th 3/31 Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa, George Kennedy, Tom Kenny, rerun Fr 4/1 David Letterman, Dweezil and Ahmet again, rerun Mo 4/4 Beb Neuwirth, Edwin Newman LATER WITH GREG KINNEAR, NBC, 1:35 A.M. EST Tu 3/29 Dan Cortese We 3/30 TBA Th 3/31 TBA Mo 4/4 Tom Arnold --Thanks to S. Trowbridge THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW, Syndicated Tu 3/29 Bertice Berry, Jim Carrey, rerun We 3/30 Singers Richard Marx, R. Kelly, Babyface, El DeBarge, rerun Th 3/31 Kadeem Harrison, rerun Fr 4/1 Steven Seagal, Celine Dion, Sting (the wrestler, not the singer), rerun Mo 4/4 Melissa Etheridge, Jennifer Tilly, Tisha Campbell, SWV, rerun Also, don't miss TOM SNYDER on CNBC, airing live Monday through Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern with a rerun of that evening's show at 1 a.m. Reruns also air at those times Friday through Sunday. The E! entertainment television cable network broadcasts reruns of _Late Night with David Letterman_ "seven Daves a week" at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Monday through Friday, the previous night's rerun is re-aired at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern. Too bad E! is more interested in sucking up to Brandon Tartikoff than in updating their hotline. As of Tuesday night we were unable to procure the reruns scheduled for this week. E! sucks. --------------------------- Send late show news and comments about this electronic sheet to barnhart@mcs.net Entire contents Copyright (C) 1994 by Aaron Barnhart. 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