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Coming off the heels of a lawsuit against singer Sinead O’Connor, Arsenio Hall is set to begin a new hosting gig this summer with ABC. It will be his newest hosting stint since the failed reboot of “The Arsenio Hall Show.”
According to Deadline, the series is called “Greatest Hits” and will feature a string of popular musicians from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s performing successful tunes. Hall will host with Kelsea Ballerini, a country singer.
The program will premiere Thursday, June 30 at 9 p.m. with six episodes slated to run throughout the season. Each episode will feature one-of-a-kind duets, solo performances and tributes. ABC has not revealed exactly who will sing the songs in each episode, but the network revealed all episodes will spotlight a five-year range of the biggest hits from each decade.
Hall tweeted about the news late Wednesday night, calling the series a “musical summer TV party.”
… 6 episodes of a musical, summer, TV party! @ABCNetwork https://t.co/aYKdvYHgJT
— Arsenio Hall (@ArsenioHall) May 12, 2016
He also posted a video on his Instagram account, saying the show has something “for everybody at your crib from 8 to eighty.”
“Hits” is the latest in a list of the comedian’s hosting jobs. His most notable moment came in 1989, when he featured a host of then up-and-coming artists on “The Arsenio Hall Show.” Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg and Boyz II Men are a few of the R&B and rap stars who made their first television appearances on the late-night talk program.
After Hall walked away from the show in 1994 to focus on other career interests, he pursued acting and got back into stand-up. Hall also took several other hosting positions until his late-night series was picked up for an all-new season in 2013.
Atlanta Black Star reported the CBS-produced show debuted to top ratings that September, beating out Jimmy Kimmel on ABC, Jay Leno on NBC and David Letterman on CBS. However, numbers dropped by 40 percent the following week, going from 1.0 to 0.4 in the 18-49 target audience. The show was later cancelled in 2014 after just one season.
