Late night television's best interviewer, Arsenio Hall, has made a triumphant return to cable. The preliminary ratings are in, and Variety reports that so far, Hall's late night show has "beat every late night program on the broadcast network" in key demos. Of course, it's too soon to tell if the high ratings can be maintained, but it's a great sign for a show that's been revived after nearly 20 years. From Variety:
In key demos, “Arsenio” scored a 1.0 rating/4 share in adults 18-49 and 1.2/5 in adults 25-54 in Nielsen’s markets with Local People Meters, beating every latenight program on the broadcast networks.
“Arsenio” fared especially well in some of the largest markets, including Los Angeles, where it was the No. 1 show in its 11 p.m. timeslot on KTLA with a 3.2 household rating/9 share — up about 90% from its local news lead-in (1.7/4). Among the top 20 markets, the only ones to fare better were Cleveland (4.6/10) and Chicago (3.3/6).
The premiere of “Arsenio” did a relatively modest 1.6/4 in New York on WPIZ, but that was a nice surge over its lead-in (1.0/2). It was also the No. 1 latenight talk show in the market in both adults 18-49 (1.2 rating) and adults 25-54 (1.5).
Hall opened with guests Chris Tucker, a video by Jay Leno and surprise guests Snoop Lion and Paula Abdul on Monday. On Tuesday night, Hall hosted rapper Ice Cube, musical guest Mac Miller and actress Lisa Kudrow. Tonight, Magic Johnson, comedian George Lopez and rapper Nas will make an appearance.
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