Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” is moving to CBS’s 11:35 p.m. ET slot, reshaping the network’s late-night lineup after “The Late Show” ends.
Byron Allen’s long-running comedy series “Comics Unleashed” is moving into CBS’s 11:35 p.m. ET late-night slot, taking over the weeknight space opening after “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” comes to an end Thursday.
The shift gives Allen, a comedian and media executive, a higher-profile late-night platform for a show that CBS had already been airing later in the night. Beginning Friday, “Comics Unleashed” will air two back-to-back episodes Monday through Friday at 11:35 p.m. ET, according to CBS News. “Funny You Should Ask,” a game show also produced by Allen’s company, will move to 12:37 a.m. ET.
The programming change follows CBS’s July announcement that it would retire “The Late Show.” The network described that decision as “a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
Allen discussed the move Wednesday on “CBS Mornings,” saying he offered to provide “Comics Unleashed” to CBS at no cost because the network was already sending late-night viewers to affiliates owned by his company. Allen Media Group’s holdings include The Weather Channel, the streaming platform Local Now, stakes in BuzzFeed and CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates.
Allen called the end of “The Late Show” a “very unfortunate event” and said he hopes to keep late-night viewers watching CBS after Colbert’s exit. “Once they made the decision, I said, ‘OK, this isn’t show business. This is business show,’” Allen said.
For Allen, the move also marks a personal return to a format he has followed since childhood. He said his interest in late-night television began while waiting for his mother, who gave tours at NBC, and catching parts of Johnny Carson’s show. Allen began doing stand-up comedy as a teenager, later wrote jokes for Johnny Walker, David Letterman and Jay Leno, and appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” at 18.
“Comics Unleashed” is built around stand-up performers and comedy conversation, not the topical monologue-and-interview format that has defined much of network late night. Allen said the show will avoid politics and aim for a broad audience. “You come, you laugh,” he said. “I want to bring people together using comedy.”
The first test for CBS’s revised lineup begins Friday, when the network tries to hold viewers in a late-night landscape it has publicly described as financially strained.
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