Byron Allen's 'Comics Unleashed' Takes Over CBS Late-Night Slot After Colbert

Byron Allen will take over the late-night time slot on CBS this Friday when his show "Comics Unleashed" fills the gap left by "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."

CBS already aired "Comics Unleashed" at a later time. The show, produced by Allen's media company, will now run two back-to-back episodes at 11:35 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. "Funny You Should Ask," another game show from Allen's company, will move to the 12:37 a.m. ET slot.

CBS announced in July that it was ending "The Late Show," calling the move a financial decision amid challenges in late night.

Allen offered to put "Comics Unleashed" on CBS at no cost. He said the network was already sending viewers to affiliates his company owns during nighttime hours. Allen has stayed active in the industry by buying The Weather Channel, the streaming service Local Now, and stakes in BuzzFeed and CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates.

"At the end of the day, you're throwing me an audience at 1:30 in the morning to my CBS affiliates that I own around the country," Allen said on "CBS Mornings" Wednesday. "I said, 'save your money.'"

Allen called the end of "The Late Show" a "very unfortunate event" and said he will try to keep the late-night audience. He said he is a fan of Stephen Colbert.

"Once they made the decision, I said, 'OK, this isn't show business. This is business show,'" Allen said.

Allen said his interest in late-night television started when he was young. His mother gave tours at NBC, and he would catch parts of Johnny Carson's show while waiting for her to finish work.

Allen began doing stand-up comedy around age 14. He wrote jokes for Johnny Walker, David Letterman and Jay Leno. He appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" at 18, which led to a co-hosting role on "Real People."

"From the moment I saw Johnny Carson, 51 years ago, I said, 'this is what I'm going to do with my life: make people laugh,'" Allen said.

Exactly 34 years after Carson left his show, Allen will be doing the same thing. He said there will be no politics on the program.

"You come, you laugh," Allen said. "I want to bring people together using comedy."