Who will be late-night TV's last man standing? Byron Allen takes his shot

Los Angeles Times

2 days ago

Before Byron Allen became a media mogul, he was one of those comedians whose life was changed by Johnny Carson.
Growing up, Allen would accompany his mother to the NBC lot in Burbank, where she worked as a publicist, and was provided with a show business education. An aspiring comic who played comedy clubs as a teenager, he regularly waited in the parking lot for the late-night host to exchange a few words before tapings of 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.'
When Allen was 19 years old, he became the youngest comic to appear on Carson's 'Tonight' stage. It led to a regular role on the NBC prime-time series 'Real People' and a successful stand-up career that had him touring for two decades.
Now Allen, 64, is poised to reenter the late-night TV arena — and just when the genre is at a crossroads. CBS' decision to end 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' next May raises questions about the future of the nocturnal kingdom Carson once ruled.
Allen will become a part of the CBS late-night lineup starting Sept. 22, when his series 'Comics Unleashed' takes over the 12:30 a.m. time slot and will follow Colbert during his final season.
Allen's series hasn't produced a new episode since 2016, but the 233 that were made during its original run have remained in syndication and aired as a stopgap for CBS in 2023 after the network canceled the money-losing 'Late Late Show With James Corden.' The network is picking up 'Comics Unleashed' for the 2025-26 season as the successor to Corden replacement 'After Midnight With Taylor Tomlinson,' which concluded its second and final season in June.
Allen has no illusions about why CBS has turned to 'Comics Unleashed' again.
'It's not cheaper,' Allen said. 'It's zero.'
Allen Media Group buys the airtime on CBS for 'Comics Unleashed' and keeps most of the advertising time on the program to sell.
It's the same formula Allen used for 'Entertainers With Byron Allen,' the program that launched his company in the 1990s. Allen would score interviews with major stars at press junkets and cut them into a weekly half-hour program.
He would go to the National Assn. of Television Program Executives conference, an annual TV marketplace for syndicated programming, and tell station owners that when the high-priced new shows they were buying failed, they should come to him and get 'Entertainers' for free. The stations received half the commercial time while Allen sold the rest to national advertisers from his kitchen table.
'I'm addicted to selling,' Allen said.
CBS said Colbert's show is being canceled for financial reasons, with insiders saying it was accruing losses of $40 million a year.
'The Late Show' may have the most viewers in late night, but Colbert has the biggest piece of a shrinking pie. Nielsen data show the number of homes using television between 11:35 p.m. and 1:35 a.m. has declined around 13% in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period last year. Ad revenues for all of the shows have declined dramatically as well over the last few years.
Late-night shows are expensive to produce, with high-priced hosts, large writing staffs and the costs of servicing live audiences. While they generate revenue from clips on social media, they don't do well on streaming. The topical nature of the shows diminishes their value as library product, which helps keep subscribers hooked on streaming platforms.
What makes 'Comics Unleashed' different than traditional late-night franchises is that it's designed to have a longer shelf life.
In the recent reruns that have aired on CBS and in syndication, viewers heard an occasional joke about the Bush administration or a plug for a comic's MySpace address. But for the most part, the shows contain few references that date them.
'I tell the comedians we're shooting 'I Love Lucy,'' Allen said. 'Something that's evergreen. So I don't want to hear any political humor. Just be funny, family-friendly and advertiser-friendly.'
In addition to veteran comics Allen has known for years, the series booked many stand-up stars before they became household names, including Kevin Hart, Whitney Cummings, Sebastian Maniscalco, Nate Bargatze and Chelsea Handler.
Stand-ups who toil on the comedy club circuit are thankful for the exposure the show provided.
'To me, Byron is the patron saint of comedians,' said Greg Romero Wilson, who wrote for the program and appeared as a panelist. 'He's given so many opportunities to comics of every level. From up-and-comers to names you've known your whole life, Byron makes room for everyone.'
Stand-up comic Shang Forbes said he hears from audience members at clubs who recall bits from episodes of the series he taped years ago.
'It was a very good experience,' Forbes said. 'I was surprised how many people saw it.'
Allen wanted 'Comics Unleashed' to re-create the camaraderie he experienced during his own stand-up career, which started when Jimmie 'J.J.' Walker hired him as a 14-year-old joke writer alongside David Letterman and Jay Leno. ('Let me ask my mom,' Allen said when he got the offer.)
'What I remember most is that comedians were at their funniest afterwards when we went to Canter's Deli,' Allen said.
Since buying the Weather Channel for $300 million in 2018, Allen has made a habit of throwing his hat in the ring whenever a legacy media company is said to be up for sale. But he recently reached a deal to sell 10 of Allen Media Groups's 28 TV stations to Atlanta-based Gray Media as part of an effort to reduce the privately held company's debt and invest in streaming.
As the owner of network affiliate stations, he is well aware of the economic challenges facing traditional TV as viewers migrate to streaming, driving down ratings and ad revenue.
'All of it is under pressure,' he said. 'The networks are spending more on sports and less on nonsports content.'
Allen spends a lot of time talking to bankers and lawyers — over the last decade he's filed lawsuits against Comcast, McDonald's and Nielsen, all of which were settled — but despite running a business, he will host new episodes of 'Comics Unleashed' himself. He plans to produce 132 half-hours, which will run back-to-back with repeat episodes. He will also be writing some jokes.
'You never stop being a comedian,' he said. 'It's a muscle that never goes away.'