Byron Allen is taking over CBS late night

In six weeks, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will come to an end, following the announcement last summer that CBS and its parent company Paramount, then amidst a contentious merger with David Ellison’s Skydance, was sh-tcanning the show for reasons entirely unrelated (“unrelated”) to host Stephen Colbert criticizing CBS and Paramount for kowtowing to Donald Trump. Now, as the sun begins to set on Colbert’s late-night tenure, we have some information about what CBS will air in The Late Show’s place.

Byron Allen’s long-running comedy/talk show hybrid, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, will move into The Late Show’s 11:35 PM time slot, with another Allen-produced show, Funny You Should Ask, a comedy trivia show, following it, creating a two-hour late-night comedy block from Allen. Notably, Allen’s media company, Allen Media Group, is buying the airtime from CBS and is responsible for selling the ad slots for Allen’s comedy power-hour(s). This means CBS is basically out of the late-night business, and will just be collecting checks from Byron Allen, which, financially speaking, is not a bad deal for CBS. They will almost certainly make money under this programming slate.

Comics Unleashed features Allen as host, delivering a topical monologue and then featuring a panel of comedians riffing on topics presented by Allen. It first ran 2006-2016, then was revived in 2023 to replace The Late Late Show with James Corden, until After Midnight, another comedy trivia show, took over that spot. When After Midnight was cancelled, Comics Unleashed returned in 2025. So, Allen and Comics Unleashed has long been CBS’s go-to pull to round out their late-night programming. Giving the entire late-night programming slate to Byron Allen makes a certain kind of sense.

I just wish it wasn’t under these circumstances. Byron Allen has not yet acknowledged this opportunity only exists, essentially, because of censorship, nor do I really expect him to say much on that front. It’s an unfortunate situation for everyone to be in, and I really don’t think anyone begrudges Allen taking the time when CBS was clearly uninterested in continuing to manage their own late-night programming. It just sucks that this is the place we’re in, that almost a year later, no one has said “maybe appeasement is a bad idea, actually” on the record. This is not an unstoppable train, but clearly, no one is going to stop it anyway. Just a bummer.

But for Byron Allen, yes, a huge opportunity. I’m just not sure in the current comedy ecosystem his show will really pop like it did when it first began airing. We’re in a completely different media environment from 2006. Josh Johnson is doing 30-60 minute topical comedy sets every week on YouTube, and YouTube and social media are full of comics clipping their sets or presenting crowd work clips every single day. There are also comedy panel shows up and down YouTube and Nebula (come for Abolish Everything!, stay for Maggie Mae Fish video essays), and HBO/Max has Have I Got News For You, which features a rotating panel of comedians riffing on topical headlines and current events. Not only does this format exist in so many other places, but with digital platforms, comedians don’t need intermediary spaces like talk shows to connect with audiences.

Comics Unleashed isn’t a unique format anymore, and from what I have seen since its 2023 revival, Allen hasn’t made significant adjustments. His show no longer stands out in a much more crowded comedy environment. CBS probably doesn’t care, because they don’t actually have to manage any of this, it will all run through Allen Media Group, but I wonder what the long-term economics look like. As long as Allen keeps production costs down—and comedy panel shows are cheap to produce—it probably won’t really matter. He’ll fill time in a dying late-night environment that has already seen the best host walk away (Conan), and only feels relevant when huge culture moments occur (like BTS stopping by), or a chaos gremlin like Chris Fleming shows up to cause havoc for ten minutes. Hard to picture Chris Fleming on Comics Unleashed, though he is the DEFINITION of a comic unleashed.

I don’t expect Comics Unleashed to be a breakout hit in its new time slot. I bet a lot of people aren’t even aware of this show, even though it’s been on for the better part of 20 years. And given that Allen doesn’t tap the cutting edge of comedy for his guests, I don’t think he’ll be getting a lot of hype from comedy fans, either. His panels skew older, with comedians like Jon Lovitz, Kathleen Madigan, Dennis Miller, and Godfrey in regular rotation—some of them are very funny (Madigan, Godfrey), but they’re not comedians younger audiences are seeking out.

What I expect is that Comics Unleashed will just fill time and given that he has waited a long time for a leading late-night slot, Byron Allen will work hard to make the most of it. Whether it will really matter is another story, because this kind of panel showcase isn’t really moving the needle in comedy anymore, unless it’s designed to go off the rails, like Abolish Everything!. But CBS won’t care, as long as the checks clear and they don’t have to spend money on it.

I am curious to see the ratings, though, mostly just to see how much of late-night TV is pure habit. How many people put on The Late Show before bed, and will leave their TV on CBS when it changes over to Comics Unleashed? That will actually be an interesting metric for the overall health of late-night TV.

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