CBS Is Handing Late Night to Byron Allen—But What About the Affiliates?

Here’s how Comic Unleashed works, or has historically worked. A network has a time s*** to fill, Allen says I will give you *x* dollars for that time s***, deal made. Allen then gets a crew, a panel of 4 comedians and films the show. The show itself is usually hacky with Allen introducing the setup to one comedian (“Hey Gallagher II, I hear you don’t like watermelons”) and they do their bit, and then turning to the next comedian and setting up their (unrelated) bit (“Yakov Smirnoff, you’re from Russia, what’s that like?”). Nothing topical, nothing political, for the sole purpose of being rerun forever. That’s the show. He then sells the ad spots to make his money back. The low production value (no writers, no band, slim crew) and the “evergreen” nature of the approved bits is how he makes his money back with the constant reruns. So, in 2034 when you see some comedian that you’ve heard nothing from in 8 years doing a shitty bit on how they spend more time looking for something to watch on all the streaming services they got nowadays than they do watching anything, keep this in mind. Totally leashed.