The top executive at Paramount’s CBS says a paid programming arrangement with comedian Byron Allen to put two of his shows in the network’s late night time slots is a temporary deal that buys the broadcaster time to refine its own late night production strategies.
Speaking at an event for the unveiling of the 2026-27 CBS television schedule on Wednesday, Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks, who is also the lead executive at CBS, said the decision to replace “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” with Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” in May was one made due to economic concerns, with politics playing no role in the switch.
The deal with Allen lasts for one year, during which CBS will continue to explore ways to capitalize on the late night time slots in a way that makes economic sense and appeases its affiliates, Cheeks promised.
“We did a one season deal,” Cheeks affirmed. “We are still going to develop other ideas, other concepts, but to go into immediate profitability in that slot made a lot of sense for us right now.”
Cheeks didn’t say how much Allen is paying to rent the one-hour time slot from CBS. The decision announced last month came two years after CBS ended its other late night show, “After Midnight,” with Comics Unleashed. Allen’s other program, “Funny You Should Ask,” will occupy the 12:35 a.m. time slot on CBS when Comics Unleashed moves to 11:35 p.m. next month.
“Byron’s been a great partner to us at 12:30, so we feel confident that he will continue to be a great partner for us at 11:30 as well,” Cheeks said.
The decision to pull Colbert’s Late Show was announced last year, shortly after the comic criticized the network and Paramount for placating the Trump administration in order to gain federal regulatory approvals to merge with Skydance Media. That deal was consummated last August. Skydance said it was not involved in the decision to cancel the show.
Cheeks said the show was expensive to produce, at a time when most late night viewing is done through clips uploaded to social media platforms like YouTube.
“The reach is still there, but the reach is there primarily on YouTube, which is under monetized,” Cheeks said on Wednesday. “So, if we’re going to go back into that space, we have to go back into that space with a different financial model.”
Cheeks didn’t say what model CBS was considering for its late night programming in the future.
