• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

CBS has decided that after the “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” ends its 11-year run in May, it will be replaced with the long-running improvisation comedy TV show “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.”

The show will take over the one-hour time slot of “Colbert” from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m.

"Comics Unleashed" has had two existing runs on CBS -- September 2023 to January 2024, and another starting in September 2025 and continuing to the present.

The show features a rotation of four comedians riffing on topics pitched from Allen for the comedians to offer comical improvisational content. It has been airing in the 12:35 a.m. time slot.

“Comics Unleashed,” which has been on the air for 20 years in U.S. station syndication, will begin in its new time slot on May 22 one day after “Colbert” show ends.

Another Allen-produced series, the comedy game show “Funny You Should Ask,” will take over the “Comics Unleashed" time slot at 12:35 a.m.

The Allen Media Group deal with CBS continues those shows as a “time buys” -- with Allen paying CBS for those hourly periods to air the shows. Allen will look to make money selling the advertising avails in the show.

“Comics Unleashed” and “Funny You Should Ask" also make deals with individual TV stations as a barter syndication program -- giving around 50% of the advertising time for local TV stations to sell, with Allen Media keeping 50% of advertising time to sell nationally.

In mid-July 2025, CBS executives said the reason for the cancellation of the “Colbert” show was because the show was no longer profitable.

This announced decision came just days after Colbert -- in his opening comedic monologue -- criticized his parent company, then Paramount Global, for paying a $16 million settlement to President Trump over his “60 Minutes” lawsuit.

Colbert went on to say: “I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles: Big fat bribe. This all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump Administration to approve the sale to a new owner -- Skydance.”

That deal was approved by the Trump Administration’s Federal Communications Commission on July 24.

Colbert’s version of “The Late Show” has been the number-one late night 11:35 p.m. show in terms of Nielsen-measured viewers for the last nine seasons.

From July 2024 to July 2025 “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” was estimated to have earned $59.9 million in ad revenue, according to EDO Ad EnGage -- down 2% year-over-year.