David Letterman On CBS Replacing ‘Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ With Byron Allen’s ‘Comics Unleashed’: “They Don’t Want To Spend Any Money”

Correct. Byron Allen pays CBS for the time s*** and then sells the ad time himself. Given the current climate over at CBS, it also should not go unmentioned that Comics Unleashed is explicitly apolitical by design. It's anyodyne hack comedy that's amenable to corporate advertisers and easy to rerun. The word "slop" gets thrown around a lot these days, but I can't think of a better term for this show. I wasn't a huge fan of Colbert's Late Show, I preferred him on Comedy Central, but it's a shame to see Letterman's legacy replaced by this shit.

I also think Dave was being a bit sarcastic in his response in the video, which the writer didn't articulate.. CBS makes some money with no risk. But it also loses a huge amount of prestige. Affiliates are going to be *pissed* when their newscasts have plummeting ratings.

Letterman had a lot more viewers.

"I was on Comics Unleashed once...first of all, you couldn't be more leashed"

Obviously, that's why it's unleashed

Not a network, the #1 network by wide margin….

It IS actually new episodes. Allen revived it in 2025. I’ll say this: at least it’s not just an infomercial. CU may be kind of a “staged” talk show, but it’s still entertaining and helps out rising comics. And Allen is a life-long Democrat, so — even if the show never takes any jabs at Trump — at least they won’t be stumping for him, which might have been another option for CBS: a right-wing “comedy” show like Gutfeld. 

Don't they have the power to get their way since they provide 95% of the content in a 24 hour window? I saw someone say the big 4 don't own the affiliates and they have to fulfill a certain window and nothing else. Just like the Affiliates were pissed at the Leno Primetime show tanking their 10 PM local news and it leading to NBC being desperate. They put the pressure on NBC and the c*** tried to shoehorn Leno at Late Night with Fallon and Conan.

> CBS affiliates are pissed about this. I don't know why they'd mind. Late Night ratings are in the crapper regardless. They still get to sell their ad space on these shows, that space isn't worth much now, and it's probably not going to be worth that much less after Colbert is gone.

Undoubtedly good news for Kimmel.

His current contract is only for the current season. I don't know if he wants to extend it given nothing was really resolved.

Being the last survivor on a doomed vessel is not good news. Broadcast TV is becoming more and more obsolete. Networks are just trying to squeeze out the last few pennies until they completely abandon ship.

I can't say I am. It's an incredibly stale medium which has been basically stagnant for 30 years as it's numbers have steadily declined. Interview shows on YouTube are cutting to the meat of what most audiences really wanted out of late night, with less artificiality and pretense. Having a precisely timed, precisely toned, 2.5 minute anecdote ready to go gets old for everyone involved. We all know these interviews are part of the larger ad campaign for whatever project the actor is working on but it really doesn't have to be so transparent. I will give Colbert credit where it is due - he was one of the better and more earnest late night hosts at interviewing guests. He seemed to have some genuine connections with people from time to time. Maybe he can do something like that on Netflix. I mean maybe you were one of the people tuning in for Colbert's monologue (I know I wasn't, his takes on Trump as a comedy topic got old for me mid 2016). But if so I have great news for you - Last Week Tonight isn't going anywhere and it already perfected that formula (really the Daily Show's formula) over a decade ago. As for Kimmel and Fallon's games with celebs... Its hard to imagine more mind-numbing content. It will not be missed when those two finally go under.

Yeah I loved Conan but now a personality like Conan is easily found 24:7 to watch whenever I want I don’t need to stay up til 11:30 Anymore so I don’t get the love affair with late night tv it’s mostly celebrity jerk fest 

??? Who gives a f***

Man, it’d be so amazing to watch Edward R. Murrow kick open the door and b**** out Ellison. Or throw hands simultaneously. 😏

That’s what happens when you let christofascist billionaires buy up all the media

"So Lovitz, I hear you're getting older."

I’ll take the over. CBS basically handing their network to infomercials early. No one will even notice unfortunately. Long live original scripted entertainment, and Stephen Colbert.

When your news division hemorrhages money, yeah.

His whole time there he ragged on him. He posted this when it the announcement happened.[CBS segment](https://youtu.be/7Rv36XkQojM?si=JmOP9b9ZhrzLfoax)

The average viewer is pensioner aged,and tv's most important adveriser demo is 18-49. Trump's buddies now in charge clearly sped up the process,but everyone was talking about all these late night shows being close to death way before his cancellation. Even the fairly tame James Corden show was cancelled years before,because they were no longer making a profit in that s***.

That same Byron Allen from Real People?? Wow wow ! I haven’t seen him in decades. I loved that show when I was like 6. I remember think Sarah Purcell was pretty. Boy, back then I was a big sucker for any of those hosted shows with produced segments like *That’s Incredible*. I had no idea at all that Byron started hosting *Real people* at 18! His wiki said he joined Walker’s writing room at 14! I also had no idea that Jimmie Walker’s writers’ room was full of hall of famers. Dude’s like Andy Reid with his coaching tree. Hell I had no idea JJ Evans needed much of a writers’.room given his “Dynomite” gimmick. This is really interesting. Thanks!

It’s a PR mouthpiece for all of their movies and shows. PR is an expense and does not create income directly. There is a reason we have to sit through all these interviews with actors who have a movie or show coming out.

Many others have been. Conan went off the air too. Talk shows are a dated formula in general. I honestly think it is better in the long run for Colbert's popularity as the people who would've watched the show 10 years ago would listen to a Colbert Podcast where he'd have way more freedom. Kind of like how Tucker Carlsen became more influential and popular after being forced out at Fox. 

> The Colbert show was extremely unprofitable It lost $40M a year. That's a rounding error for CBS. They also could have renegotiated Colbert's contract for less money, or cut down staff, removed the live band, figured out better ways to monetize the show... you get the point. They could have done a lot to keep the show. They didn't want to because Trump was running his mouth about Colbert and the CEOs want to make him happy. That's all it boils down to. The money talk is just an excuse.

No one gonna watch this either