{"id":3619,"date":"2014-06-02T19:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T00:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=3619"},"modified":"2014-06-02T19:17:30","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T00:17:30","slug":"arsenio-time-slot-up-for-grabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/06\/02\/arsenio-time-slot-up-for-grabs\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Arsenio\u2019 time slot up for grabs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arsenio<\/a>

<\/a> Arsenio Hall<\/p><\/div>\n

No matter what WGN-Channel 9<\/a> airs at 10 p.m. weeknights this fall, it\u2019s a pretty good bet it will do better in the Nielsens than \u201cThe Arsenio Hall Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg Easterly, president and general manager of the Tribune Broadcasting station, said Monday no decision has been made about a replacement for the syndicated talk show, which was canceled Friday after one season. Although production has ceased, the show is expected to continue to air until September.<\/p>\n

In May, \u201cArsenio Hall\u201d averaged a paltry 1.2 rating (42,408 households) and 2 percent share in Chicago. In key demographics it fared even worse, averaging a 0.5 rating among adults between 25 and 54, and a 0.4 rating among adults between 18 and 49.<\/p>\n

One option for the 10 p.m. time slot, according to insiders, is \u201cCelebrity Name Game,\u201d a new syndicated pop-culture game show hosted by Craig Ferguson. Produced by Courteney Cox and David Arquette, and based on the board game Identity Crisis, the show was picked up by Tribune Broadcasting stations nationwide.<\/p>\n

Another, according to speculation by Chicago media blogger Terence Henderson,<\/a>\u00a0is off-network reruns of \u201cThe Middle,\u201d which loses its 4 p.m. time slot this fall to accommodate an additional hour<\/a> of local news.<\/p>\n

If not doomed from the start, Hall\u2019s comeback as a late-night talker showed signs of trouble early on. Barely a month after the show debuted, Neal Kendall was forced out as executive producer amid reports that ratings had dropped off significantly each week it was on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s too soon to declare the show dead, but there\u2019s no way it can survive on Hall\u2019s charisma and nostalgia alone,\u201d I wrote here<\/a> in early October. \u201cPlagued by miserable monologues (hint: jokes are supposed to be laughed at<\/em> \u2014 not applauded), lame bits and lackluster guests, it needs to get a lot better. And fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tribune Broadcasting, which was a production partner on the show and which aired it on WGN and 16 other stations nationwide, it was a costly misfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is incredibly important for us in terms of the lead-outs from late news, in terms of us having a little more fire power on the original programming front, when we package ad sales and when we go to cable operators,\u201d Tribune Co. CEO Peter Liguori told employees<\/a> at a Chicago town hall meeting at which he introduced Hall last fall.<\/p>\n

Despite the show\u2019s weak ratings, CBS Television Distribution announced in February that it had been renewed for a second season, with former \u201cTonight Show\u201d host Jay Leno appearing on \u201cArsenio Hall\u201d to deliver the news<\/a> himself. Even so, the plug was pulled<\/a> Friday.<\/p>\n

Hall acknowledged his uphill battle when he spoke to Tribune Co. employees at the town hall meeting. \u201cThe toughest part of doing the show is realizing that the word \u2018business\u2019 is larger than the word \u2018show,\u2019 \u201d he told them.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Hall said in a statement: \"When I started this adventure with CTD and Tribune, we all knew it would be a challenge \u2014 I\u2019m gratified for the year we\u2019ve had and proud of the show we created. I\u2019d like to thank everyone on my staff for rallying around me and striving to make the best show possible every night.\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter what WGN-Channel 9 airs at 10 p.m. weeknights this fall, it\u2019s a pretty good bet it will do better in the Nielsens than \u201cThe Arsenio Hall Show.\u201d Greg Easterly, president and general manager of the Tribune Broadcasting station, said Monday no decision has been made about a replacement for the syndicated talk show,... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3619"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3624,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3619\/revisions\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}