Trump Derangement Syndrome infected Hollywood.
The backlash has been swift.
And one Trump-hating comic got fired, and you won’t believe what happened next.
The man taking over CBS’ late-night slot says the new rule is simple: just be funny
Stephen Colbert spent a decade turning CBS’ late-night hour into a nightly anti-Trump rally.
Now he’s out, and the man walking in behind him couldn’t be more different.
And what Byron Allen said about his plans for the 11:35 p.m. slot will make a lot of Americans breathe a little easier.
CBS announced in July that it had canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and that it would officially go off the air in May 2026 after a more than 10-year run.
The network announced its decision to end The Late Show after Colbert openly criticized Paramount for agreeing to pay that $16 million settlement, calling it a “big fat bribe.”
CBS said it was purely a money problem as Colbert’s show lost tens of millions of dollars per year while driving off viewers with this anti-Trump hysteria.
Donald Trump personally celebrated the cancellation, writing on Truth Social that “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”
The numbers told their own story. The Late Show‘s ad revenues reportedly plunged from $121 million in 2018 to $70 million last year amid declining ratings, with about 2.1 million viewers per episode in June, down from 3.1 million at the peak.
The ascension of Allen’s show appears to be a sign of the times, precisely as many of the late-night talk shows like Colbert’s have been accused of becoming divisively political and out of step with American audiences, many of whom go to podcasts for political commentary.
Enter Byron Allen
On May 22, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen will replace The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on the late-night schedule.
In 1979, at the age of 18, Allen made his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, becoming the youngest comedian to ever perform on the show. Comedian Jimmie Walker had seen Allen’s stand-up act and invited the 14-year-old to join his writing team alongside promising young comedians Jay Leno and David Letterman. So this is not some nobody who stumbled into a lucky deal. Allen has been working toward this his whole life.
Allen takes over Colbert’s late-night slot on May 22, a date he insisted upon because “my hero Johnny Carson” signed off from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson exactly 34 years earlier in 1992.
The long-running comedy talk show is produced by Allen Media Group and hosted by Allen himself. Originally premiering in 2006, the show features a roundtable format where four comedians and the host share anecdotes, jokes, and observations on pop culture.
And here is where it gets interesting for everyone who is sick of turning on the TV after 11 p.m. and getting a lecture about whatever the Left is upset about this week.
Allen told the Los Angeles Times exactly what kind of show he intends to run. “I tell the comedians we’re shooting I Love Lucy,” Allen said. “Something that’s evergreen. So I don’t want to hear any political humor. Just be funny, family-friendly, and advertiser-friendly.”
Three words. Just be funny. Imagine that.
Allen told Variety, “We’re doing a show with nothing political, racist, sexist, or homophobic… just clean comedy.”
There is a practical reason behind that philosophy too, and it goes beyond just wanting a nicer vibe. Allen has said he urges his participants to avoid religious and political content to keep the show with a lighter touch for a mass audience and to facilitate that reruns are more successful, since they won’t be tied to stories, politics, or news that were occurring when the episode initially aired.
A Deal CBS Couldn’t Refuse
Allen made CBS a deal they could not refuse. Instead of CBS spending its own money to create and produce a brand-new late-night show, Allen proposed airing his existing show, Comics Unleashed. Under the deal, CBS would avoid the high production costs of launching a new late-night series, and Allen’s company would actually pay CBS.
Allen put it plainly when asked about the economics. “It’s not cheaper,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s zero.”
In April, Paramount TV Media chair George Cheeks told reporters CBS is still developing other late-night ideas, but the one-year deal with Allen allows the network “to go into immediate profitability in that slot,” according to Variety.
So CBS stops bleeding money on a show that was losing tens of millions of dollars a year, and Allen gets the platform he has been chasing his whole career. Not a bad trade for either side.
The 12:35 a.m. slot will be filled by Funny You Should Ask, a syndicated game show created by Allen and hosted by Jon Kelley.
Allen was gracious about Colbert on his way in. Allen addressed CBS’s decision to cancel Colbert’s show, calling it “an unfortunate event,” and took a moment to praise the outgoing host. “I really like Stephen Colbert. I think he is a magnificent human being,” Allen said. “He’s a super talent, I believe he is an American treasure.”
But Allen also isn’t pretending the landscape hasn’t changed.
What It Actually Means
Late-night television spent the better part of a decade convincing itself that relentless political mockery was good business. The ratings told a different story. Viewers who wanted to wind down after a long day found themselves getting talked at instead of being entertained. A lot of them simply stopped watching.
Allen is betting that a return to what late-night used to be, comedians being funny without an agenda, is exactly what audiences are hungry for right now. The format he runs on Comics Unleashed is built for longevity, not the news cycle. The 233 episodes originally shot between 2006 and 2016 as a syndicated series, featuring the likes of Kevin Hart, Chelsea Handler, and Nate Bargatze, are essentially timeless. That is not an accident. It is a deliberate choice.
Colbert, for his part, sent Allen a note of congratulations when the news broke. Colbert told the Hollywood Reporter, “God bless him. I know Byron. We got to know each other last year, actually. He’s fascinating.”
But Colbert’s goodwill doesn’t change what just happened. A show built around nightly political grievance got canceled, and the replacement is built around the idea that comedy doesn’t need a target to be funny.
A lot of Americans have been waiting a long time to hear someone in Hollywood say that out loud. Byron Allen just did.
“I created and launched ‘Comics Unleashed’ 20 years ago so my fellow comedians could have a platform to do what we all love — make people laugh,” Allen said in a statement. “I truly appreciate CBS’ confidence in me by picking up our two-hour comedy block of ‘Comics Unleashed’ and ‘Funny You Should Ask,’ because the world can never have enough laughter.”
He’s right about that. And after years of late-night turning into a nightly scolding session, a little laughter sounds pretty good.
Sources: Mediaite, Washington Examiner, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter, Fox News, CNN, TVInsider, E! Online, Wikipedia