Byron Allen will get to live his late night TV dream this Friday when his nearly 20-year-old show, “Comics Unleashed,” fills the time slot opening up after “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” comes to an end Thursday.
CBS was already airing “Comics Unleashed” at a later time slot. The show produced by Allen’s media company will now air two back-to-back episodes at 11:35 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. “Funny You Should Ask,” a game show also produced by Allen’s company, will move to the 12:37 a.m. ET slot.
CBS announced in July that it was retiring “The Late Show,” citing “a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”
Allen offered to put “Comics Unleashed” on CBS at no cost, since the network was already tossing to affiliates that his company owns during the nighttime hours, he said on “CBS Mornings” Wednesday. Allen has maintained his prominent role in a struggling industry, acquiring The Weather Channel, the streaming platform Local Now, and stakes in BuzzFeed as well as CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates.
“At the end of the day, you’re throwing me an audience at 1:30 in the morning to my CBS affiliates that I own around the country,” Allen said. “I said, ‘save your money.'”
The media mogul called the canceling of “The Late Show” a “very unfortunate event” and said he will try and hold onto the late night audience.
“I love Stephen Colbert. I’m a big fan,” Allen said. “Once they made the decision, I said, ‘OK, this isn’t show business. This is business show.'”
Allen’s love for late night television began when he was young, he told CBS. His mother gave tours at NBC, and he would catch snippets of Johnny Carson performing while waiting for her to get out of work.
Allen was around 14 years old when he started doing stand-up comedy. He’s written jokes for Johnny Walker, David Letterman and Jay Leno. He performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” when he was 18, which helped him earn a co-hosting spot on “Real People.”
“From the moment I saw Johnny Carson, 51 years ago, I said, ‘this is what I’m going to do with my life: make people laugh,'” Allen said.
Exactly 34 years to the day of when Carson stepped down from his iconic role, Allen will be doing just that.
But, Allen said, there will be no politics on the show.
“You come, you laugh,” Allen said. “I want to bring people together using comedy.”
