Billionaire media mogul Byron Allen doesn’t seem one hundred percent sure that his Late Show deal is going to “work.”
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Allen told the program’s Kevin Frazier that he was aware of how risky it was to hand CBS “tens of millions” for the time buy.
“What we do is we keep the commercial time, and we sell it directly to the advertisers,” Allen told ET. “I agreed to pay the network millions of dollars—tens of millions of dollars, OK—so this better work, or I’m going to be in front of your house in a tent,” he joked.
Frazier jokingly replied, “That’s a lie because you have many houses.”
Allen purchased the time from the network for his comedy program, Comics Unleashed, which currently airs after Colbert’s Late Show. In addition, he will keep the following hour, during which he will run his other comedy series, Funny You Should Ask. Allen hosts and executive-produces both shows through his Allen Media company.
Allen said in a statement after the deal was announced on Monday, “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. I truly appreciate CBS’s 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.”
The Late Show will air its last episode on May 21, just months after Colbert’s on-air back-and-forths with Donald Trump reached a crescendo when he called CBS parent company Paramount’s 60 Minutes settlement with the president a “big, fat bribe.”
Paramount, which was merging with the MAGA billionaire David Ellison’s Skydance at the time, insisted that firing Colbert was not politically motivated. However, naysayers, including some Democratic lawmakers, have continued to call the timing of Paramount’s decision to shelve the show suspicious.
Enter Allen, who hopes to make more big bucks by inserting his own programs into the empty time slot.
With Allen’s purchase of the available time, the network is guaranteed at least Allen Media’s payments in return for the airspace. Allen’s company also owns and operates several major television properties, including The Weather Channel, Court TV, and Comedy.TV. He also owns several affiliate broadcast television stations across the United States, including ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox.
The mogul and television host began his career as a stand-up comedian, debuting as the youngest comedian to ever appear on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1980, at just 18 years old. After building an empire out of low-cost television, he started hosting his comedy shows, which he hopes Colbert’s exit will bring more eyeballs to on May 22.
