Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen has been a big topic of conversation of late. The show’s been on the air since 2006, with some breaks during that time, but it’s only been over the last several months that significantly more eyeballs were directed at the show and its host, the titular Byron Allen.
The reason? Byron Allen is occupying the slot The Late Show owned until just a couple of months ago, and there’s been a large debate about CBS taking money from Allen for the show, marking a different TV model. Separately, there’s also been a debate about why Stephen Colbert’s show was canceled in the first place, and Trump’s distaste for The Late Show has often cropped up in that conversation.
In a heated conversation, NPR journalist Ailsa Chang kept asking Byron Allen if he was asked by CBS and Paramount to not engage in any political humor, to which Allen kept repeating “absolutely not.” Instead, he says it’s a bent he’s stuck with for many years before taking over the slot formerly occupied by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Every comedian has come through the show. Comedy always wins if it's just simply pure comedy. So we do this show with nothing but comedians. They don't plug anything. They don't do anything political, because I said 20 years ago, 20 years ago, don't do anything political. Don't do anything racist, sexist, any of that, 20 years ago.
Per the late night personality, this has been the idea for what his series should be for years, not just since he took over The Late Show’s timeslot. He’s getting asked about politics, because some hedged the administration was the entity who wanted it canceled and CBS acquiesced. Stephen Colbert was actually asked about this political rumor before his exit.
As part of the conversation, Byron Allen also mentioned competing with Seth Meyers prior to the changeover and how statistically the numbers for Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen were statistically beating the show it used to compete with.
We won in this-- since September, we're beating Seth Meyers, who's been on way longer than my 18 months. Now what's happening-- you have to look at this because we go by the numbers. Remember [sic] it's a business show, not show business. The repeats on political humor, when you do a show, the repeats are negative, negative 52%. The shows that are doing political humor, the repeat's negative 52%. The repeats on Comics Unleashed, negative 14%, according to Nielsen. Why? Because I'm not talking about something that happened eight weeks ago or 12 weeks ago.
Allen’s said for a while he wanted to create Comics Unleashed for his comedian buddies twenty years ago because he didn’t feel at the time there was a good forum to get out diverse voices. In the time since, the show has had all kinds of comedians from different walks of life, backgrounds, you name it, come on the show. They’ve been taping the show for a long time, and he wants to “be clear” CBS is not giving them notes.
I want to be clear. I have absolutely not had any conversations with anybody at CBS or Paramount about what to say or not to say, politics or no boundaries. … Because I want the drawing the audience to know-- because I want all this-- time out, all these shenanigans. CBS has not given me any notes, any feedback about, don't be political.
It has to be difficult to be the guy coming in to take over for a late night series with iconic status. It doesn’t help he’s the mastermind behind a model that will make CBS money even if it only does OK. Allen’s said he doesn’t want to “replace Colbert,” and I appreciate he wants to make the whole thing work longterm, though CBS has seen some viewers pivot away to the Jimmys after Colbert was done on the air.
But if you are expecting politics, you will not be getting it, despite having comedians from different backgrounds on the series. This is just Allen’s bent. It’s not like Jimmy Fallon is out there getting overly political (though I’d argue he’s dipping his toes in more lately). We all need to find our niche, and a lot of the hosts are looking to figure out their space after The Late Show ended. All of late night is feeling it.
