Jay Leno failed at 10pm, but one host could make that time slot work: Arsenio Hall. For one thing, prime time needs some color. Minorities have made some inroads on the late-night schedule, from BET’s Mo’Nique Show to Fox’s Wanda Sykes Show, “but let’s be honest,” Jozen Cummings writes for The Root. “None of those shows have the cultural cache or the popularity Hall’s show once enjoyed.”
“The last thing anybody wants, and the last thing NBC needs, is more of the same programming,” Cummings argues. “Leno didn’t work because people were tired of seeing the same, old thing bumped up an hour earlier.” Arsenio wouldn’t be the same old thing; he would appeal to a new audience, and his show would have its pick of elite black stars as guests. Clearly, it’s time for an experiment at 10pm. “It would behoove NBC to fade to black.” (More Arsenio Hall stories.)