Arsenio Hall on Celebrity Apprentice: "Getting as Far Outside an Entertainer's Wheelhouse Is What Does It"

Arsenio Hall said it plainly: "Getting as far outside of an entertainer's wheelhouse is what does it. — Arsenio Hall" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

On February 9, 2012, NBC held a press call for Celebrity Apprentice Season 12, premiering Sunday, February 19th at 9 p.m. on NBC. The call featured executive producer and host Donald Trump, pop star Debbie Gibson, and Arsenio Hall. By the time Premier Guide Miami's Daedrian McNaughton asked her question, both Trump and Gibson had dropped off the line, leaving Arsenio to hold it down solo — which, as it turned out, suited him perfectly.

Getting as far outside of an entertainer's wheelhouse is what does it. Most people who are famous don't do manual labor. They don't really work hard.

I feel that the drama sometimes takes away from the amount of hard work that you guys really put in on these jobs. Can you tell me — what was your most difficult task, an example of what you found to be the most difficult part of the task in accomplishing it?

Well, you know, I feel that getting as far outside of an entertainer's wheelhouse is what does it, and you've got to admit most people who are famous or relatively successful, they probably don't do manual labor. They don't really work hard. Hard work is — I was in the trailer waiting for more than an hour. You know, that's hard work, right? So it's when Clay Aiken screams at somebody and says, "I said clean those bugs out of that pot now!" — it's like, that's when the show gets hard, because first of all, a person who makes all the decisions in their life and no one tells them what to do is being told not only what to do, but to do some nasty manual labor, and it seems like the really tough things of that nature combined made the hardest, most interesting television moments, also, by the way.

Earlier in the call , Trump had described Arsenio's return as a coming-out party: "He sort of became almost reclusive, and people wanted him for different things and he wouldn't do it. I view this as Arsenio's coming out party, and I think that Arsenio will have a very major show after Celebrity Apprentice, because he's smart. He's tough." Arsenio explained his own motivation: "I've always wanted to do the show. I was a fan of the show, but I live in LA, and I'm a single dad. Didn't think I could leave my home for two months at a time. It just happens to be the 20th anniversary of the Magic Johnson Foundation, which I've been a part of for a long time. So it just seemed like this was the year." On the season's biggest rivalry, Trump called out Lisa Lampanelli versus Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza: "I don't know what it is that Lisa had against Dayana, but it was brutal." Arsenio added: "Lisa was our Meatloaf of this season." On what the next generation can learn from the show, Arsenio deadpanned: "As a fan you learn that Lou Ferrigno is a fighter, not a lover. And as a contestant I learned to hate China because I listened a lot about politics to Mr. Trump. So I think I'm almost a Republican lite now." On the legacy of his talk show: "I hope that maybe I changed politics a little by not booking Kenny G. one night and letting Bill Clinton play. Hopefully I helped put the rap game on the map." And on Don Cornelius, who had died two weeks earlier: "He was one of those guys that was like my mentor. I actually think when you watch the body of my old talk show, I learned to produce that kind of thing from Don Cornelius. It's unfortunate that he was so sad at the end of his life and that it ended in that way. But I have great memories of laughing with him." Celebrity Apprentice Season 12 premiered Sunday, February 19, 2012, on NBC.

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