CBS will go from allegedly losing $40 million a year putting on “Late Night With Stephen Colbert” to earning an unspecified amount from comedian Byron Allen, who has leased the two hours starting at 11:35 p.m. ET.
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Starting the day after the beloved late-night host’s May 21 departure, back-to-back episodes of “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen” will take up residence at 11:35 ET, followed by the comedy game show “Funny You Should Ask” at 12:35 ET for the second late-night hour.
Under the time buy-deal, the Allen Media Group, Allen’s production company, will take charge of selling the available ad spots for the two hours. The leasing agreement means that CBS may well profit financially no matter how many people watch, according to Variety.
For Allen, it’s a chance to bring even more laughter to the world while highlighting and supporting his fellow comedians.
“I created and launched ‘Comics Unleashed’ 20 years ago so my fellow comedians could have a platform to do what we all love — make people laugh,” said Allen, the production company’s founder, chairman and CEO, in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “I truly appreciate CBS’s confidence in me by picking up our two-hour comedy block of ‘Comics Unleashed’ and ‘Funny You Should Ask,’ because the world can never have enough laughter.”
He had filled those slots twice before, first during the 2023-24 gap between “The Late Late Show With James Corden” and the launch of “After Midnight” and again when the comedy “game show” ended its run in September 2025.
“Comics Unleashed” was first broadcast as a syndicated series, airing 233 episodes between 2006 and 2016. New shows are in production for the 2025-26 television season. “Funny You Should Ask,” hosted by Jon Kelley, was syndicated from the get-go in 2017.
CBS announced last July that it was canceling “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” in a “purely financial decision,” the network said. It was three days after Colbert called out parent company Paramount for paying $16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump as nothing short of “a big fat bribe” amid Paramount’s $8 billion merger bid with Skydance Media.
“The Late Show” won its first ever Primetime Emmy a month later. The merger ultimately went through.
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