Comics Unleashed will take the 11.35pm time slot vacated by the cancellation of The Late Show, and viewers used to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert will see Comics Unleashed starting on Friday.
Byron Allen, 65, struck a 16-month-long lease with CBS to pay for the old Colbert hour and will sell the advertising for Comics Unleashed himself, a move CBS executives said will provide immediate profitability for the network.
The series has been running for 20 years and Allen says it has featured roughly 1,000 comedians over that span. Allen described the program simply: five comedians sitting around with one purpose — making people laugh — and he has set rules he enforces: "No political humor, nothing racist, nothing sexist, nothing antisemitic, nothing homophobic, just be funny." He told interviewers that repeats on his show are down 14%, compared with repeats of some political humor talk shows, which he said are down 52%.
Context matters here. CBS said it canceled The Late Show for financial reasons, and the network has chosen a low-cost, proven package to fill the immediate gap in its schedule. Comics Unleashed started airing in the slot right after Colbert’s show in September, and Funny You Should Ask will continue to air after Comics Unleashed. Allen has also expanded his media holdings recently, acquiring a majority stake in BuzzFeed and owning other properties including the Weather Channel and a group of local television networks.
The tension is obvious: Allen insists on the show’s distinct identity while also paying to occupy Colbert’s former stage. "I’m not trying to replace Colbert," Allen said. "I don’t think anybody can replace Colbert. I think he’s phenomenal. I think he’s fantastic." Yet by leasing the 11.35pm slot and selling the ads himself, Allen is stepping into the economic role Colbert vacated and into the audience routine Colbert once commanded. CBS framed the arrangement as a quick path to profitability; for Allen, it is both a distribution win and a direct revenue play.
For viewers and advertisers the change is immediate: starting Friday the nightly 11.35pm appointment will deliver standup and panel-style comedy rather than Colbert’s monologues and interviews. That distinction matters editorially — Allen has insisted his program avoids political material — but it does not change the practical reality that CBS replaced a late-night flagship with a lower-cost packaged series whose economics Allen controls through a lease and direct ad sales.
Answering the question the scheduling change raises: Byron Allen will not replace Stephen Colbert’s voice or his political late-night format, but he will replace The Late Show in the network’s lineup and in the marketplace that produced its advertising dollars. In short, he is the Late Show replacement in scheduling and revenue terms, if not in editorial terms.
