The appearance of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was highly controversial due to remarks by Farrakhan that many felt were anti-Semitic and homophobic. Protests from Jewish and gay groups pressured Hall to cancel Farrakhan's appearance but Hall adamantly refused. Hall agreed to feature pre-taped segments featuring opposing viewpoints but he did not air any of them. Some affiliates put a disclaimer before the episode warning viewers. The furor over this episode was a major reason why Hall and Paramount decided not to renew his contract.
The show was syndicated and aired on some CBS affiliates throughout the country. When Late Show with David Letterman (1993) premiered, many CBS affiliates moved Hall's show to a later time slot or dropped the show altogether. Hall's show also aired on some Fox affiliates. One week later, Fox premiered The Chevy Chase Show (1993) and Hall's show suffered the same fate. Even though Chase's show was short-lived, Hall was unable to retrieve his previous time slots. Hall's show was still popular in the markets where his show had not been moved or replaced but the nationwide ratings had sharply declined.
His audience was famously rowdy and excitable. When he interviewed Mister Rogers, they were pin-drop quiet.
A taping of an episode was interrupted by members of gay rights group Queer Nation, who accused Hall of not inviting enough LGBT celebrities as guests on his show. The ever-inclusive Hall did not take this well.
After the termination of legendary talk show hostess, his mentor, Joan Rivers on The Late Show (1986), Hall replaced her as permanent host, and was given a 13-week contract to continue as host, when the news had already replaced it. Another reason Hall was unavailable because he was filming the movie Coming to America (1988), which made scheduling very difficult. The following year, Hall had found his own talk show and proved it to be the more successful one.