{"id":210380,"date":"2025-10-09T00:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T00:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/210380\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T00:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T00:31:08","slug":"byron-allen-wants-stephen-colberts-cbs-time-slot-for-comics-unleashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/210380\/","title":{"rendered":"Byron Allen Wants Stephen Colbert’s CBS Time Slot For Comics Unleashed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tByron Allen<\/a> got his first big break at age 18 in 1979 as a standup comedian on \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.\u201d More than 45 years later, Allen is now a media mogul: But he\u2019s still got his eyes on a late night prize.<\/p>\n

\n\tInterviewed on stage Wednesday during New York\u2019s Advertising Week event, Allen said he\u2019s pitching hard to land the 11:35 p.m. time slot on CBS next year after \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert<\/a>\u201d ends its run. (In July, CBS announced it would cancel \u201cThe Late Show\u201d<\/a> after this current season, calling it a \u201cfinancial decision.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf they\u2019re looking for a show, my hand is already up,\u201d he told moderator Bill Carter. \u201c50 years, I\u2019ve been waiting for this moment. Definitely, I\u2019m going for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAllen\u2019s \u201cComics Unleashed<\/a> With Byron Allen\u201d currently airs on CBS at 12:35 a.m., in the timeslot most recently held by \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d (and before that, \u201cThe Late Late Show With James Corden\u201d). It\u2019s a low-risk endeavor for the network, since Allen pays CBS for the hour as a time buy and then sells the advertising spots himself. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m investing millions and millions of dollars to prove myself at 12:35,\u201d he said. \u201cI am winning the time period. If numbers matter, then we\u2019re already winning.\u201d (Because it\u2019s a time buy, ratings for \u201cComics Unleashed\u201d are not immediately available, so Variety has not yet been able to confirm that stat or which measurement he might be referring to.)<\/p>\n

\n\tCBS has not yet revealed its plans for the late night slot once Colbert\u2019s show ends next May. Options include returning to drama reruns (\u201cCrimetime After Primetime\u201d), which is what CBS ran before \u201cLate Show With David Letterman\u201d premiered in 1993. The network could also expand local news, giving affiliates an extra half hour and perhaps plugging in reruns at midnight. Or, CBS could take Allen up on his offer and shift \u201cComics Unleashed\u201d down to 11:35 or to midnight (if the network still opts to go with an hour-long local news slot at 11 p.m.). <\/p>\n

\n\tCurrently, \u201cComics Unleashed\u201d airs as two half-hour episodes nightly: The first 30 minutes is a new episode, while the second episode is an older episode from the series\u2019 library. \u201cComics Unleashed\u201d originally shot around 233 episodes between 2006 and 2016 as a syndicated series before resuming production on new episodes for the 2025-2026 TV season on CBS.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter \u201cThe Late Late Show With James Corden\u201d wrapped in 2023, Allen pitched the \u201cComics Unleashed\u201d time buy as a stopgap for CBS in the 12:35 slot until the Eye\u2019s replacement series, \u201cAfter Midnight,\u201d was ready to premiere in January 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy whole thing was, \u2018hey, we have a big opportunity here,’\u201d Allen said. His pitch to CBS: \u201c\u2018Why would you spend $35 million on a television show at that hour? Let me provide you the show, and I will happily produce the show, and you can save that 35, 40 million, whatever it is, and put it elsewhere.\u2019 So CBS said, \u2018this makes it makes sense.\u2019 We did a 19 week test in fall 2023. It did extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen \u201cAfter Midnight\u201d host Taylor Tomlinson decided to depart in early 2025, CBS canceled the show all together. That\u2019s when Allen once again took over the 12:35 slot. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018look, mathematically, you\u2019ll never beat the show.\u2019 At that point, we\u2019d done about 260 episodes, which means 620 comedians have come through the show. I have 620 of the greatest comedy writers on planet Earth today. They\u2019ve written the material. They performed it everywhere. They\u2019ve perfected it. They come on our show. We shoot the show for close to an hour, and we cut it down to 22 minutes. Day one, I\u2019ve always said the show has to be evergreen. That\u2019s how I was able to put it on. No topical humor, no political humor. nothing. I don\u2019t want anything that\u2019s racist, sexist, anti semitic, homophobic, I don\u2019t want to hear any of that\u2026 we have enormous support from the advertising community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tComedian-turned-mogul Allen launched his Allen Media Group 30 years ago, focusing first on syndicated fare, and then expanding into media outlets. He now owns a chain of TV stations (which is now in the process of divesting), numerous lifestyle channels, the Weather Channel and digital outlets including The Grio and HBCU Go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Byron Allen got his first big break at age 18 in 1979 as a standup comedian on \u201cThe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[49565,120217,88,10675,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-210380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-byron-allen","9":"tag-comics-unleashed","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}