As reported by Variety, CBS has decided to cancel the resurrected Arsenio Hall Show due to its inability to sufficiently “grow its audience” over the course of its first—and now only—season. Arsenio started with strong ratings back in September, but it apparently couldn’t hold onto anything meaningful when put up against Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show—which reportedly just pulled in its best May ratings since 2006. It seems like kids these days are more into watching Paul Rudd and Emma Stone compete in wacky lip sync battles than whoever Arsenio Hall got to compete in wacky lip sync battles.
The especially interesting thing about this news is that CBS already announced that it would give The Arsenio Hall Show a second season back in February. Jay Leno even made a surprise appearance and congratulated Arsenio on getting picked up, which means the show being canceled is probably—like most things—somehow his fault. Choosing to blame something other than Jay Leno, though, executive producer John Ferriter highlighted the show’s struggle to book exciting guests. He told Variety that “many, many celebrities” were interested, but the show “couldn’t get their reps to book them.”
Now, with news like The Arsenio Hall Show ending, some readers may become concerned that The A.V. Club has found itself trapped in the year 1994. We’d like to assure everyone that it’s merely a coincidence we’ve been talking about Kurt Cobain’s death, The Shawshank Redemption, and the Sony PlayStation so much lately. Nobody should worry unless we start saying that NBC is a legitimate TV network again, like it was during 1994’s rise of E.R. and Friends. Then you’ll know we’ve been sucked back in time.