ABC to exploit ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s nostalgia with Greatest Hits

By Dennis DiClaudio | May 13, 2016 | 2:13pm

Aux Features TV

How many seconds after ABC executives came up with the idea for a nostalgia-based performance show do you think it took for them to settle on Arsenio Hall as a host? More than 30? The former late-night talk show host has agreed to join country singer Kelsea Ballerini as the faces of Greatest Hits, a six-episode summer series that will highlight the most radio and family-friendly pop songs of the previous three decades, Deadline reports. Each episode will focus on one five-year period between 1980 and 2009, featuring an as-yet-unannounced slate of both new and established musicians delivering their versions of songs you’ve heard upwards of 5,000 times. Given some recent legal news, it seems like a safe bet that neither Sinéad O’Connor nor her songs will make it onto the show.

Hall came to cultural prominence as the host of The Arsenio Hall Show, which originally aired on Fox from 1989 to 1994. A short-lived resurrected version of the late night talk show was syndicated from 2013-2014, just before his new co-host Ballerini scored her first hit single “Love Me Like You Mean It,” which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Country chart. Her newest song, “Peter Pan,” was released in March. The two will begin their co-hosting partnership on June 30 at 9 p.m. on ABC.