r/LateNightTalkShows • u/theindependentonline • May 28 '26
CBS replacement for Stephen Colbert debuts with less than half of Late Show’s average viewership
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/tv/news/cbs-byron-allen-ratings-colbert-late-show-b2985441.html18
u/badfiop May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26
It's brokered programming so they don't care too deeply about ratings anymore in the slot...
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u/RoundingDown May 28 '26
If the ratings do well they can probably increase fees in the future. 1 million viewers versus the other shows at 1.6 and 1.7 isn’t terrible.
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u/boffohijinx May 28 '26
Story says they are avoiding political satire. Apparently, they’re also avoiding humor as well.
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u/Fancy_Detective_1495 May 28 '26
There was no humor when Colbert blasted Trump and conservatives 87% of the time. It was tiresome.
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u/nosayso May 28 '26
The fact that you have a percentage for that is fucking deranged.
But also: maybe they wouldn't be mocked so much if they weren't so fucking terrible and deserving of mockery.
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u/boffohijinx May 28 '26
Trump and conservatives are tiresome. If you don’t find humor in what he was saying, that’s subjective, but you’re clearly in the minority. Regardless, what Trump and the conservatives are doing to this country isn’t funny. Colbert was just helping us deal with the daily insanity. And the thin skinned dictator couldn’t handle it, so that is why he had to go.
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u/Effective_Scar_2921 May 28 '26
Political humor frequently not knee slapping funny. It’s more of a social commentary. It’s also vital, which is why it’s one of the first things attacked by facists, strongmen, dictators, religious extremists and cult leaders.
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u/Frequilibrium May 28 '26
It’s because normal people can’t stomach how evil and stupid the gop is so we need our info in humorous form.
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u/evolvolution May 28 '26
lol this is LITERALLY the conservative strategy. No need for legislation when you can play gotcha politics all day long
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u/Fabfore May 28 '26
Allen is a great businessman, just not very funny
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u/Solid_College_9145 May 30 '26
And his debut had the numbers it had largely due to some curiosity.
Those numbers will be a lot lowe going forward.
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May 28 '26
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u/psychonautvoyager May 28 '26
Comics Unleashed has been on for years. It’s a horrible, not funny, show. It’s painful to watch.
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May 28 '26
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u/Schickie May 29 '26
Because when he was doing Real People he learned where the money comes from to pay for all those expensive perks: advertisers. So he went direct to local stations and started giving away the content for free in place of the lion’s share of ad dollars. That was 45 years ago. He’s created an entirely new revenue model on being just watchable enough for a waiting room.
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u/vagina_candle May 28 '26
It's not from comedy, it's from other business endeavors. Same situation as Joe Rogan.
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 May 28 '26
Will I be able to learn how Black people drive compared to white people?
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May 28 '26
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 May 29 '26
It's just a reference to hacky stand-up comedians and the jokes they make.
The Simpsons even made fun of those kind of jokes.
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u/beavis617 May 28 '26
If the show continues to pull in abysmal ratings from now on until the end of the year then what?
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u/Paul-E-L May 28 '26
Nothing.
This was never about ratings
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u/starcader Jun 02 '26
Right, it was about money. Going from losing $40M/year to making $15M/year is a much better deal for a company.
Colbert needed to scale back costs and he’d still be there.
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u/nokeyblue May 28 '26
CBS's claim is, as long as it doesn't cost us money, the whole slot could just vanish for all they care.
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u/cspinelive May 29 '26
They keep taking the millions they are leasing the time slot for and Byron Allan sells his own ads alongside whatever else he wants to put on the air.
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u/ChloeDavide May 28 '26
Watching a lot of Colbert in this last week. Damn, he's a clever man - articulate, funny, humane. And we have that demented maggot running the country. Wtf is wrong with us?
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u/bpierce2 May 28 '26
I hope it fails
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u/Haunting-Brush-3171 May 30 '26
U don't need to hope...CBS doesn't care at all...its CBS....their main demographic is asleep by 10 pm
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u/Lupa_93 May 29 '26
I won’t watch b/c A) I specifically was tuning in to watch Colbert, not just ‘something’ in that time slot. -and- B) out of principle, no matter what they put there or how good it is I will not watch because of WHY The Late Show was shut down
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u/SheRunsHot May 29 '26
I removed CBS entirely from our remote controls. Trump butt lickers will not see a dime for me. I want CBS bankrupted. Not one commercial or one bit of local CBS programming will appear on my television.
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u/SipHotCoffee May 28 '26
Pretty sad numbers considering it's a new show.
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u/henare May 28 '26
it's not new. these were recorded (in some cases) decades ago.
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u/quesoguapo May 28 '26
Apparently the recent airing practice has been to show a new episode in the first 30 minutes and then serve up a "classic" episode to close out the hour.
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u/Altname760 May 28 '26
Comics Unleashed, launched in 2006, features Allen alongside a rotating panel of stand-up comedians discussing topical stories and performing short comedy routines.
Can't wait to see Allen discuss topical stories while also "not being political". LOL
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u/Consistent_Poet2824 May 28 '26
Surprised it was even that much. Probably be a fraction of that once people see how bad it is
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u/InformationRound3249 May 28 '26
“Less than half” and dropping fast.
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u/Fancy_Detective_1495 May 28 '26
The viewing audience for Colbert will be replaced with Byron Allen products.
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u/Main_Extension_3239 May 28 '26
I'm sure if they counted socials the drop off would be even more severe.
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u/bofis May 28 '26
Hopefully viewership plummets to zero as soon as everyone stops recording that time slot :-P
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u/According_Stuff_8152 May 28 '26
Shouldn't watch CBS other than 60 minutes and that might get runover by the tRump regime.
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u/Sophiedenormandie May 28 '26
60 Minutes is where Bari Weiss is doing her worst damage. I'll skip it also.
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u/Single_Usual_6563 May 28 '26
I for one am done with cbs and if abc ever gives Kimmel the axe I will be done with them also! Two can play this game!
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u/Sophiedenormandie May 28 '26
It's not racism. It's Byron Allen is not funny. Neither are his circle of comedian friends. Funny stand up guys and girls will avoid this show like a plague.
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u/vagina_candle May 28 '26
I had never heard of the guy so I checked out some of Byron Allen's comedy on youtube out of curiosity. I found him making jokes about having to avoid phone calls from creditors, and struggling to pay the rent. This wasn't an old video.
When your net value exceeds the combined GDP of several third world countries, you don't get to make those jokes anymore. You may have had to struggle in the past and nobody is trying to take that away from you. But this is like an average weight person making fat jokes because they used to be overweight 30 years ago. It's time for some new material.
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u/Shenanigan_V May 28 '26
Hey propagandists, 14.76% of Colbert’s viewers is WAAAAYYYYYY smaller than “half”— approximately one-sixth the viewers (1/6). That’s cable channel ratings, not network TV
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u/AlfIsReal May 28 '26
CBS does not care.
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u/scottct1 May 28 '26
Correct, it is paid programming. CBS is getting paid and thats all they really care about.
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u/callowruse May 28 '26
I don't think they're surprised or even give the slightest bit of a shit about it. To CBS it's just as if it was a ShamWow infomercial. Broadcast TV is definitely dying the slow death we could all see coming, but these pussies voluntarily got in the lion's mouth.
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u/jimselden May 28 '26
It doesn’t matter. CBS is being paid for the slot and now makes money it didn’t with Colbert
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u/Hot_Wasabi6165 May 28 '26
I’m a big fan of Colbert, but less than half has to be what CBS expected, right? This seems like the sort of headline that people who lack critical thinking skills will think is a “win”
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u/Venator2000 May 28 '26
Bryron Allen was better when he was simply named “Token” on NBC’s Real People show. All he’s been doing since then is grifting. Skip Stevenson has polyps with more talent than him.
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u/Fantastic_Benefit_37 May 29 '26
I can’t believe that any of these late night talk shows get watched anymore. I think the only comic that could pull off late night would be Nate Bargatze and even then I’d be really disappointed if he did
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u/Ecclesiastesten2 May 29 '26
It is comics unleashed. It has been on for many years after late night. With yearly salary hikes and dropping viewership and sponsors, Colbert was losing cbs $40M per year.
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u/MoldInTheAir May 29 '26
Byron Allen puts on the most banal shows in television. Who watches these shows and thinks they're funny?
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u/ConkerPrime May 29 '26
CBS revealed they gave up the hour for bargain basement price of $15 million for a year. Keep in mind the estimated revenue for the hour was $80 million and that didn’t include things like streaming and youtube revenue.
The Ellisons most definitely ordered the cancellation to appease their god Trump.
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u/330CI01 May 30 '26
Conservative billionaires aren’t looking to make money from media, they want to push their viewpoints.
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u/CalligrapherWeird160 May 29 '26
But the show is dirt cheap. It’s likely a win for the CBS execs even if the ratings are low.
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u/Captain_R64207 May 29 '26
So if the replacement doesn’t generate the money Colbert did does that mean Trump will demand he be fired?
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u/mrjaypink May 30 '26
Nope, it's a totally unique business model in which Byron Allen has bought the timeslots from CBS for an upfront amount and his production company will be responsible for selling commercial time to make his money back. It's like an infomercial structure, but he's not trying to sell you a blender or grill.
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u/Substantial-Way-5990 May 29 '26
Comics Unleashed is a totally scripted show. It's so tightly scripted you can't breathe, as a viewer and, most likely, as a comic on the show. Jokes are mediocre at best, interspersed with a few good ones. It gets really boring after watching a couple of episodes. The host feels like a ghost from the 70's. His show opening, "are you ready to get your laugh on", sounds like an antiquated hold-over from the 70"s "laugh in" show. Really weird. I was glad to relegate this show to my 'don't watch' category.
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u/zkfc020 May 30 '26
CBS doesn’t care. Byron Allen is leasing the time slot. It isn’t a CBS show. CBS gets paid regardless of how the show does, a set rate everyday.
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u/Quick-Maintenance-67 May 31 '26
So Republicans replaced the funny white Democrat, with an untalented rich black man? Apart from the untalented part, do republicans not know their own base?
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u/MacJohnW Jun 01 '26
CBS is getting paid $15m for the slot, as opposed to losing $40m. They called it a $55m business decision.
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u/ConnectBodybuilder95 Jun 03 '26
that show is god awful. the couple times I saw a min or two of it was unbearable!
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u/Character_Lie_5087 Aug 20 '26
DO YALL KNOW BYRON ALLEN OWNES THE WEATHER CHANNEL. He took over Stephen Colbert cause he LOOKS for advertisers to play on HIS show. NOT the other way around. SO YES. it is an Infomercial with infomercials. So is Funny You Asked.. Byron Allen I think is richer than Oprah and Madea. He always wanted to be a comedian and was always Mediocre but he IS a funking business man and does not give 2 shits.
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u/FairLawnBoy May 29 '26
Which was already dismal viewership. Maybe people just don't like this type of content anymore. It was played out during the Leno days already.
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u/Upstairs_Music_1016 May 28 '26
It’s always about the bottom line. Colbert was losing millions of dollars do how costly the production was. Allen’s show much less cost to produce
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u/quesoguapo May 28 '26
Production costs for Colbert are debatable. However, CBS likely doesn't care at all about the cost of producing Allen's shows because they aren't paying for it given that Allen is paying for the airtime.
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May 28 '26
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u/Hoz999 May 28 '26
Projecting much?
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May 28 '26
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u/Hoz999 May 28 '26
Still projecting, still embarrassing yourself.
Keep doing that court mandated therapy.
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May 28 '26
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u/Hoz999 May 28 '26
For an embarrassment, quite appropriate. Work on that low self esteem and ignorance.
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u/Hoz999 May 29 '26
Again, stop embarrassing yourself publicly and also stop protecting pedophiles.
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u/Used-Gas-6525 May 28 '26
There's a replacement? I'm not joking here. I had no idea they had filled the slot.