Byron Allen got his first big break in 1979 at the age of 18 as a stand-up comedian on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” More than 45 years later, Allen is now a media mogul. But he still has his eyes on the late night awards.
Interviewed on stage Wednesday during an Ad Week event in New York, Allen said he is working hard to win the 11:35 p.m. slot on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” next year. (CBS announced in July that it would cancel “The Late Show” after this season due to a “financial decision.”)
“If they’re looking for a show, my hand is already up,” he told host Bill Carter. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for 50 years. I’m definitely aiming for that moment.”
Allen’s “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” currently airs at 12:35 a.m. on CBS in the most recent time slot occupied by “After Midnight” (previously “The Late Late Show with James Corden”). It’s a low-risk move for the network because Mr. Allen pays CBS an hourly fee and sells the ad spots himself.
“I’m investing millions of dollars to prove myself at 12:35,” he said. “I’m winning by time. If numbers matter, we’re already winning.” (As it’s a time buy, ratings for “Comics Unleashed” aren’t immediately available, so Variety can’t yet confirm that statistic or what metric he’s referring to.)
CBS has not yet revealed its plans for the late-night slot after Colbert’s show ends next May. Options include returning to reruns (“Crimetime After Primetime”) of the drama that CBS aired before it aired “Late Show with David Letterman” in 1993. The station will also expand its local news coverage, giving affiliate stations an extra 30 minutes and possibly incorporating late-night reruns. Alternatively, CBS could accept Allen’s offer and move Comics Unleashed to 11:35 a.m. or midnight (if the network chooses to continue its one-hour local news slot starting at 11 p.m.).
Currently, “Comics Unleashed” airs as two half-hour episodes each night. The first half hour is a new episode and the second is an older episode from the series’ library. “Comics Unleashed” originally filmed approximately 233 episodes as a syndicated series from 2006 to 2016, before resuming production of new episodes for the 2025-2026 television season on CBS.
After “The Late Late Show with James Corden” ends in 2023, Allen pitched “Comics Unleashed” in CBS’ 12:35 slot as a fillip until The Eye’s replacement series “After Midnight” begins airing in January 2024.
“My mind was, ‘Hey, there’s a big opportunity here,'” Allen said. His pitch to CBS: “‘Why spend $35 million on a TV show for that hour? Let me give you the show. I’ll be happy to produce the show. Save that 35, 40 million, whatever it is, and put it toward something else.’ So CBS said, ‘This makes sense.’ We conducted a 19-week test in the fall of 2023. The results were very good. ”
When “After Midnight” host Taylor Tomlinson decided to leave the show in early 2025, CBS canceled the show all together. It was then that Allen again took over the 12:35 slot.
“I said, ‘Mathematically, you’ll never be able to win this show.’ At that point, we had about 260 episodes. So we had 620 comedians on the show. We have 620 of the greatest comedy writers on the planet right now. They wrote the material. They did it everywhere. They perfected it. They’re going to be on our show. The show is one. We shot it for almost an hour, but we cut it down to 22 minutes. On the first day, I always said the show had to be evergreen. That’s how it came together. No topical or political humor. Nothing. I don’t want anything that’s racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, and I don’t want to hear any of that… We have tremendous support from the advertising community. ”
Mr. Allen, a comedian turned mogul, started Allen Media Group 30 years ago, first focusing on syndicated programming and then expanding into media outlets. He currently owns a string of television stations (currently in the process of being sold), numerous lifestyle channels, the Weather Channel, and digital outlets including The Grio and HBCU Go.
