Arsenio Hall steps back into spotlight on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’
Here’s something that might make you go “Hmm”: Arsenio Hall on Celebrity Apprentice. The former late-night talk-show host is one of 18 cast in the latest edition of the Donald Trump reality series, which returns Sunday on NBC. Global will broadcast the series Saturday nights, beginning Feb. 25; it’s also available for streaming starting Monday at Globaltv.com.
The comedian, who turns 56 on Sunday, joined several other contestants at NBC’S TV critics press tour party last month in Pasadena, Calif.
Other comedians on board for the fifth edition are magician Penn Jillette, Adam Carolla and Lisa Lampanelli. American Idol grad Clay Aiken, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, original Star Trek player George Takei, former TV Hulk Lou Ferrigno, race car driver Michael Andretti and American Chopper dad Paul Teutul, Sr., are also in the cast, as are supermodel Cheryl Tiegs, singers Aubrey O’day and Debbie Gibson, Tia Carrere and Patricia Velasquez, former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, and reality stars Victoria Gotti and Teresa Giudice.
While he’s occasionally surfaced on sitcoms and other late night venues, Hall has been largely out of the spotlight since his syndicated talk show went off the air in 1994. He almost hosted Deal or No Deal, a gig that went to fellow comedian Howie Mandel. He did briefly host a revival of Star Search in 2003.
Money was not an issue for Hall. He owned a piece of his syndicated talk show and made millions off that series.
The Arsenio Hall Show is best remembered for kick-starting Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential bid after the then-arkansas governor put on some shades and played “Blue Suede Shoes” on saxophone with Hall’s band.
It was also where NBA star Magic Johnson made a dramatic appearance after revealing he had contracted HIV. Hall points out that it has been 20 years since Johnson asked him to join the board of directors of the Magic Johnson Foundation. The chance to raise funds and awareness for the campaign to find a cure for AIDS is what really motivated Hall to join this year’s Apprentice.
Otherwise, says Hall, there was “no amount of money that could make me stand there while Clay Aiken screams at me,” he says, goofing on one of his opponents.
Hall says he’s been asked to appear on Celebrity Apprentice before but always turned the opportunity down, begging off with the excuse that he wanted to concentrate on raising his son Cheron, now 12. He’s always balked at the two-month commitment to leave L.A. for New York in order to tape the series.
“I’ve never been away from him that long,” he says of his son. “I needed him to look me in the eye and say, ‘Daddy, let’s do it.’ ”
Hall also probably didn’t want to go against Joan Rivers, a past Celebrity Apprentice winner. When Rivers left her late-night talk show on the Fox network in the late ’80s, Hall emerged from a posse of replacements as the one who eventually got a shot at late night. He’s also been wooed to take part in Dancing With the Stars but has so far declined.