Byron Allen on how CBS handed him Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ time slot
Byron Allen is set to take over CBS's late-night time slot previously held by Stephen Colbert with his show 'Comics Unleashed.' He views this transition as a significant business opportunity to expand his media empire, having recently acquired a controlling stake in Buzzfeed. Allen's long-standing ambition to be part of late-night television has now come to fruition as he prepares to lease the hour and sell advertising himself.
- ▪Byron Allen's 'Comics Unleashed' will air at 11:35 p.m. ET starting Friday.
- ▪He recently acquired a controlling stake in Buzzfeed, aiming to build on its existing foundation.
- ▪Allen approached CBS with a proposal to save over $110 million by leasing the time slot instead of launching a new show.
4 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 14 hours. All of the coverage we found sits in one bucket: right. That one-sidedness is itself worth noticing.
- ▪ How to watch the ‘Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ finale for free — Page Six
- ▪ How to watch ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ final show for free: Time, livestream — New York Post
- ▪ How To Watch ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ Finale Live: Time, CBS and Paramount+ Free Streaming Info — Decider
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| Original publisher | NBC News — Top |
| Canonical URL | https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/byron-allen-cbs-comics-unleashed-stephen-colbert-late-show-time-slot-rcna346188 |
| Publication time | Thu, 21 May 2026 09:00:00 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-21T09:06:10.451Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-21T09:06:10.451Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | mroPU7QCtle5 · 4 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
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| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
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Culture & TrendsByron Allen on how CBS handed him Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ time slotThe comedian-turned-media mogul spoke to NBC News this week about how “Comics Unleashed,” as well as his majority stake in Buzzfeed, will help him grow his media empire.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Byron Allen in Los Angeles on April 18. Etienne Laurent / AFP via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 21, 2026, 5:00 AM EDTBy Chloe MelasAs CBS sunsets “The Late Show,” media executive Byron Allen is gearing up to take over one of television’s most coveted evening time slots.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Starting Friday, Allen’s long-running syndicated comedy series, “Comics Unleashed,” will air at 11:35…
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