Byron Allen will take over CBS’s 11:35 p.m. ET slot starting Friday, when his long-running syndicated comedy series Comics Unleashed moves into the late-night hour. Allen said the shift came after he approached CBS in July, after news broke that the network was removing Stephen Colbert and The Late Show from the air, and called the deal a "business opportunity."
The scale is concrete: Allen says he told CBS, "I’ll buy the time period, and you can save over $110 million," and under the arrangement he will lease the hour and sell the advertising inventory himself. Starting Friday, Comics Unleashed will air at 11:35 p.m. ET; Allen would not reveal exactly how much he is spending on the deal but said he is "putting a lot of money in their cash register." He framed the offer with a grin, recalling, "I said, ‘OK, do you like money?’" and answered his own question: "Yes!"
The move is both personal and strategic. Allen, a stand-up comic who appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1979, turned to business and founded Allen Media Group — originally Entertainment Studios — in 1993. His company owns television channels including Pets.TV and Cars.TV and bought the Weather Channel’s parent company in 2018. Last week, Allen bought a controlling stake in BuzzFeed and said he will not "touch" the foundation Jonah Peretti built: "Everything Jonah [Peretti] has built in the last 20 years, we are not touching that," he said, adding, "That is the foundation we are building on that, and we’re making it additive." He also plans to make BuzzFeed user-generated content available on his ad-supported streaming platform, Local Now.
Context matters: CBS is sunsetting The Late Show, and the opening in the late-night schedule created a rare, highly coveted broadcast opportunity. Rather than develop a new late-night host-led show, Allen stressed he would not "not put on another show," casting this as a financial play — buying time, not retooling late-night programming — and as a way for CBS to cut costs while preserving cash flow through his leased arrangement.
The tension is obvious. Allen says the deal saves CBS more than $110 million and that he is "putting a lot of money in their cash register," but he declined to disclose the price he is paying. He has described the moment with theatrical confidence — "I am a gift from the money gods and the comedy gods" — even as his simultaneous purchase of BuzzFeed arrives at a moment when that site has struggled to find a sustainable business model. Allen insists he will preserve BuzzFeed’s existing architecture and staff approach, saying plainly, "Everything Jonah [Peretti] has built in the last 20 years, we are not touching that."
This is, in short, a commercial takeover of a marquee hour rather than a programming reinvention. Beginning Friday, viewers will see Comics Unleashed at 11:35 p.m. ET; Allen will keep the ad inventory and the revenue it generates. He framed the decision with a personal memory about his mother and a young comedian’s gamble: "I was thinking to myself, in the next five minutes I’m going to change my life and my mother’s life forever, so I’m going to go out there and have a great time, and after I make these people laugh, we’re never going to worry about a bowl of cereal again."
For CBS the near-term question is settled — the network has cleared the slot and collected a lease — and for Allen the next move is clear: monetize the hour and graft BuzzFeed’s audience and content onto his ad-supported platforms. For readers who want the full filing on the change, see Comics Unleashed: Byron Allen Takes Over CBS 11:35 p.m. Slot —
