CBS has experienced a significant drop in viewership after replacing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen. This change has raised concerns about the network’s strategy and its ability to retain a loyal audience.
During its final season on air, The Late Show was the most-watched late-night talk show in America. It consistently attracted an audience of 2.7 million viewers. The show’s ratings saw a dramatic spike on Stephen Colbert’s final night, which took place on Thursday, May 21, when 6.74 million viewers tuned in. However, the following evening, during the same time slot, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen only managed to draw 995,000 viewers.
This decline in viewership is not just a drop from Colbert’s performance but also a significant gap compared to other late-night shows that remain on the air. For instance, NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon attracted 1.5 million viewers on Friday, while 1.6 million people watched Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC, even though the episode was a rerun.
Byron Allen, the host of Comics Unleashed, has stated that he is “not trying to replace” Stephen Colbert. Allen, a comedian and billionaire media executive who founded Allen Media Group, explained to NPR that his show will focus on comedy rather than the political satire that became a hallmark of Colbert’s program, especially during the presidencies of Donald Trump.
“At the end of the day, I’m not trying to replace Colbert,” Allen, 65, said in an interview. “I am not trying to hold on to his audience because Comics Unleashed has been around for 20 years and has its own audience. And we’re speaking to people who have been ignored. And good luck finding another show that’s had on more comedians of every shape and size and color.”
Comics Unleashed, which launched in 2006, features Allen alongside a rotating panel of stand-up comedians discussing current events and performing short comedy routines. The show previously occupied CBS’s post-midnight slot after James Corden’s departure from The Late Late Show. It returned to the network again in 2025 under a time-buy agreement in which Allen Media Group purchased airtime from CBS and handled its own advertising sales.
In April 2026, CBS announced that the program would move into the 11:35 p.m. slot following the end of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The network made this decision after cancelling the long-running Late Show franchise in July of the previous year. This cancellation came shortly after Colbert criticized Paramount for paying U.S. president Donald Trump $16 million to settle a dispute over a 60 Minutes interview with then-vice-president Kamala Harris.
Colbert was one of the American president’s most visible television critics, regularly using his opening monologues to mock him and right-wing media figures. His sharp wit and commentary made The Late Show a staple of late-night television.
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