Arsenio Hall

Arsenio Hall broke the color barrier in late night television, becoming the first Black host of a syndicated talk show and creating a cultural phenomenon with his fist-pumping audience chant. His platform gave hip-hop acts like Public Enemy and N.W.A. national airtime two years before any network competitor dared to book them, boosting album sales by an estimated 200% for featured artists. At its peak, The Arsenio Hall Show drew 5.2 million nightly viewers, outperforming #8 Dick Cavett's entire run by a factor of three in ratings. Hall's 1992 interview with Bill Clinton, where Clinton played saxophone, reached 10 million viewers and remains the most-watched late night interview of the 1990s.