The second series was shot at Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood, and it was produced by Tribune Broadcasting, Octagon Entertainment and Eye Productions.

During the monologue of his final appearance as host, Hall stated that he agreed to only do 13 weeks because he could only stay long as he had plans "to do other things".

Arsenio, debuting on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1989, with guests Brooke Shields, Leslie Nielsen and Luther Vandross, was one of two late-night shows to premiere that month.

[10] One of the show's recurrent themes was affixing a humorous label to a section of the studio audience in rows behind/near the band, called the "Dog Pound", based on the Dawg Pound fan section of Cleveland Stadium and later FirstEnergy Stadium of the Cleveland Browns National Football League team.

[12] A frequent joke in Hall's opening monologue suggested that he still lives in Cleveland and drives to Los Angeles every day to host the show.

While on these alleged long drives, Hall ponders certain thoughts, referring to them as "things that make you go hmmm...." The running gag inspired a 1991 C+C Music Factory song by the same title.

The Arsenio Hall Show, which premiered on 135 stations nationwide, was aimed primarily at, although not limited to, the younger urban audience.

[14] Eddie Murphy (a personal friend of Hall's), George Lopez[15] and other performers were often featured, such as semi-regular guests including Andrew Dice Clay and Paula Abdul.

[20] Hall often featured World Wrestling Federation wrestlers, like Hulk Hogan (who first denied using steroids on the program), "Ravishing" Rick Rude (who made a special set of tights with Hall's face on the back) with Bobby Heenan, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Bad News Brown, the Big Bossman, and Akeem with Slick and The Ultimate Warrior.

During a December 1990 taping, three or four members of Queer Nation, seated in the back row in different sections of the audience, interrupted Hall's opening monologue demanding to know why he never had any gay guests on the show.

Increasingly infuriated, Hall added that he booked guests due to his interest in what they were working on at the time, not because of their sexual preference.

The heated exchange[22] went on for several minutes, and Hall continued to defend himself as both a comedian and a host, pointing out that he also had gay friends, and that a person's sexual preference was really nobody else's business.

The appearance is often considered an important moment in Clinton's political career, helping build his popularity among minority and young voters.

At the time, CBS did not offer much in the way of late night programming other than its nightly crime drama rerun block and its overnight newscast CBS News Nightwatch (later replaced by Up to the Minute) and had not offered a late-night variety program since The Pat Sajak Show was cancelled in 1990.

Another prominent group of stations that carried the program were affiliates of the still-young Fox, many of which picked up Arsenio to fill the gaps left when The Late Show, which never was able to find an audience, was finally canceled in 1988.

In the summer of 1993, David Letterman, who had spent over 13 years at NBC and the previous 11 as the host of the popular post-Tonight Show program Late Night, left the network due to his dissatisfaction with being passed over as host of The Tonight Show after the retirement of Johnny Carson in favor of Jay Leno the previous year.

[28] Arsenio also found itself losing some of its audience to cable, as MTV launched the daily thirty-minute program The Jon Stewart Show, which became popular in its own right.

Subsequently, Fox decided to get back into the late-night television battle after several years, despite Arsenio drawing solid ratings on many of its affiliates.

Since this now meant that Paramount and MTV were corporate siblings, there was a ready-made replacement for Arsenio and after a retooling and expansion, a syndicated version of The Jon Stewart Show was launched in late 1994.

Nonetheless, they were not willing to give up on the idea fully and in 1998, Paramount developed a daytime variety show for comedian Howie Mandel.

[37][38] Tribune-owned stations airing Arsenio included: KTLA in Los Angeles, KDAF in Dallas-Fort Worth, WPIX in New York City, WGN-TV in Chicago, KCPQ in Seattle and WDCW in Washington, D.C.

Unlike Hall's previous series, this version was taped at the Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood,[39] whose lot houses KTLA.

[40] As with the original series, Hall referred to his house band as "The Posse 2.0" which consisted of Robin DiMaggio as the music leader/director and drummer, Alex Al on bass, Rob Bacon on guitar, Sean Holt on saxophone and Victoria Theodore on keyboards.

[45] The senior VP of programming and development, Eric Pankowski, took over while Hall conducted a search for a new show-runner, in an effort to revamp the show and boost ratings.

[50] According to Media Life Magazine, Hall's flashy, edgy and laid-back approach to late-night talk shows in the early 1990s was having little effect on audiences after its reincarnation.

[14] The revived Arsenio program was initially renewed for a second season on February 26, 2014; the announcement was made to that night's audience on air by Jay Leno in his first post–Tonight Show appearance.