“Comics Unleashed” moves to 11:35 p.m. on May 22, with “Funny You Should Ask” following as CBS closes out “The Late Show” franchise after 33 years.
NEW YORK, N.Y. — CBS said Monday it will move Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” into the 11:35 p.m. slot on May 22, one day after Stephen Colbert’s final “Late Show,” replacing a long-running live franchise with a two-show comedy block.
The move matters beyond one host or one network schedule change. It shows how sharply broadcast late night has shifted as production costs rise, ad money shrinks and more viewers watch clips online instead of tuning in every night. CBS is not handing the hour to another desk-and-couch host. Instead, it is turning to a lower-cost setup built around Allen’s existing shows, a choice that keeps comedy on the network but changes the kind of programming viewers will see at the end of the day.
The path to Monday’s announcement started last summer, when CBS said “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” would end in May 2026 and that the network would retire the franchise altogether. Colbert, who took over from David Letterman in 2015, told the audience at the Ed Sullivan Theater that he had learned of the decision the night before. He said the news meant more than the end of his own run, because the whole “Late Show” line was going away. The audience booed, and Colbert said he shared their feelings. He also said he was not being replaced. On Monday, CBS filled in the missing piece of that plan by naming Allen’s programs for the hour after Colbert’s last show on May 21.
Under the new schedule, “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen” will air at 11:35 p.m. beginning May 22, and “Funny You Should Ask,” another Allen-produced comedy series hosted by Jon Kelley, will follow at 12:35 a.m. Allen said in a statement that he created “Comics Unleashed” 20 years ago so comedians would have a place to perform and said he appreciated CBS’ confidence in the two-show block. The timing is direct and clean. Colbert signs off on Thursday, May 21. Allen’s block begins the next night. What CBS has not laid out yet is whether the network sees this as a long bridge, a longer-term strategy, or simply the least expensive way to hold those hours in the 2026-27 season.
The network did not pull Allen’s format out of nowhere. “Comics Unleashed” has already been part of CBS late night in different forms. It had a limited run from 2023 to 2024 after “The Late Late Show With James Corden” ended, then returned for the 2025-26 season in the later slot after “After Midnight With Taylor Tomlinson” left the schedule. That history matters because it gave CBS a ready-made replacement when “The Late Show” approached its end. Allen’s show is built as a roundtable with comedians drawing from stand-up material rather than daily monologues about breaking news. The format is lighter, simpler and easier to repeat. CBS also does not carry the same nightly production load that comes with a live topical franchise built around a major host, a writers room and a large studio staff.
The financial structure helps explain the choice. The Los Angeles Times reported that Allen pays CBS for the hours and covers the full production costs of his programs, while Allen Media Group gets most of the commercial time to sell. Allen described that setup last year in blunt terms, saying the arrangement costs CBS nothing. That is a very different model from the old broadcast late-night playbook, where the network absorbs the cost of the host, band, writers, bookings and daily production. It also fits the current market. Late-night television has been under pressure for years as ratings soften, ad revenue falls and younger viewers consume highlights on phones and laptops the next morning. For CBS, replacing Colbert with a leased comedy block is not just a programming decision. It is a business decision shaped by a shrinking economic model.
Even so, the end of Colbert’s show did not land as a routine cost-cutting move. When CBS announced the cancellation in July 2025, the network said the decision was purely financial and not related to the program’s performance, its content or anything else happening at Paramount. That language came under scrutiny almost at once. The announcement followed Colbert’s criticism of Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” dispute, and the timing led some Democrats, including Sen. Adam Schiff and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, to question whether politics had played a role. Colbert kept working through the final year of his contract and remained a sharp critic of both Trump and Paramount management. Trump, for his part, celebrated the cancellation. None of that changes Monday’s schedule decision, but it remains part of the story because it shaped the public response to the end of the franchise.
The programming shift also says something about the future tone of the hour. Under Colbert, “The Late Show” stayed rooted in interviews and celebrity bookings, but it also became a steady home for political satire and pointed monologues. Allen’s shows are built differently. “Comics Unleashed” leans on stand-up energy and broad comic conversation, while “Funny You Should Ask” mixes comedy with a game-show format. They are designed to travel better in reruns and depend less on that day’s headlines. That may make them more durable for syndication and cheaper for CBS, but it also means viewers who used the 11:35 slot for live reaction to politics and culture will be getting something else entirely. What disappears with Colbert is not only one host, but a style of network late night that for decades tied the day’s news to a studio audience and a fresh monologue.
For now, the remaining weeks of “The Late Show” carry both nostalgia and uncertainty. The franchise began in 1993 with Letterman and became a signature part of CBS after the local news. Colbert then carried it for 11 years and, despite the pressure facing the format, stayed one of the most visible names in broadcast late night. CBS has made clear that it sees him as irreplaceable even as it moves his hour to a cheaper structure. The next key dates are close: Colbert’s final broadcast is set for May 21, and the Allen block begins May 22. After that, CBS late night will still exist on the schedule, but it will look very different from the show that defined the hour for more than three decades.
Author note: Last updated April 6, 2026.