Black Billionaire Byron Allen Grabs CBS Late-Night Slot

Black billionaire, media mogul, and comedian Byron Allen is stepping back in front of the camera, not just making deals behind the scenes.

Allen is stepping into the late-night spotlight following the end of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which is wrapping up after more than a decade of political satire and celebrity interviews.

Starting Friday, May 22, Allen’s Comics Unleashed will take over the 11:35 p.m. ET time slot on CBS, airing two back-to-back half-hour episodes each night. The roundtable comedy series will feature Allen alongside a rotating group of comedians riffing on a range of topics, a format that has been a familiar staple since the show debuted in 2006.

A Long-Ambition Realized

For Allen, the move marks the culmination of a long-held ambition. The veteran entertainer began his television career as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1979, and has openly campaigned for the slot since Colbert’s cancellation was announced.

“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,” Allen said in a statement. “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.”

A High-Stakes Bet

The deal, however, is far from conventional. Allen has been candid about the financial stakes of the deal in an interview with Entertainment Tonight’s host Kevin Frazier. He said he is personally bankrolling the time slot, paying CBS tens of millions of dollars upfront while retaining the commercial inventory to sell directly to advertisers themselves. It is an unusually bold business model for late night, and one that puts Allen’s own fortune squarely on the line, a fact he appears willing to embrace with both eyes open.

“What we do is we keep the commercial time, and we sell it directly to the advertisers,” Allen told ET. “I agreed to pay the network millions of dollars—tens of millions of dollars, OK—so this better work, or I’m going to be in front of your house in a tent,” he joked.

Now that moment has arrived. Allen, founder, chairman, and CEO of Allen Media Group, expressed gratitude in a statement, saying he truly appreciates CBS’s confidence in selecting them. Also, Funny You Should Ask, a comedy game show, will simultaneously move into the 12:35 a.m. ET slot, also beginning May 22. 

Controversy in the Background

Allen’s arrival also comes amid lingering controversy.  CBS announced last July that it would cancel The Late Show, with some critics accusing the network and its parent company, Paramount, of dropping Colbert’s show to curry favor with President Donald Trump. This was to smooth the path for a planned merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. 

Colbert himself was blunt when he broke the news to his audience. “I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away, “he told viewers at the time. 

Whether CBS’s late-night reinvention under Allen represents a bold new direction or a cost-cutting from prestige programming remains to be answered by audiences. What is certain is that Bryon Allen, the black comedian-turned-billionaire media owner, has finally claimed his prime-time seat at the table.

Byron Allen (Image credit: Allen Media Group)