CBS Says Colbert Replacement Show Will Turn $40 Million Loss Into $15 Million Profit

The ratings for Byron Allen‘s Comics Unleashed debut in its new time slot might have been lackluster, but CBS isn’t concerned because the network claims the show will generate them $15 million in profit.

Allen’s long-running comedy panel show officially replaced Stephen Colbert‘s The Late Show last Friday (May 22) as part of a new “time buy” deal with CBS. The network canceled The Late Show for “financial” reasons last July, claiming the show lost $40 million annually.

“We’re proud to partner with Byron Allen on a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost prohibitive to continue,” a CBS spokesperson said in a statement, per Variety.

The statement continued, “With this ‘time buy’ model, we have shifted an hour that was losing roughly $40 million annually to $15 million in profit — a $55 million swing.”

This “time buy” model means that Allen’s company, Allen Media Group, is paying CBS for the time slot and covering all production expenses. Allen Media Group is able to sell its own commercial space to advertisers, helping recoup the costs of production.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, citing Nielsen numbers, the final ratings for the first two episodes of Comics Unleashed averaged about 1.1 million viewers. The first half-hour was a brand new episode, while the second was a rerun from September.

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As expected, the debut numbers were significantly down on Colbert’s series finale, which drew 6.7 million viewers, the show’s most-watched weeknight episode of all time. However, it was also down from the Late Show‘s final-season average of 2.7 million viewers.

When CBS first announced it was axing The Late Show for financial reasons, some critics argued the move was politically motivated, with parent company Paramount hoping to appease President Trump amid its merger with Skydance, which required government approval.

Earlier this week, longtime reporter Bill Carter suggested Trump and his administration were “personally involved” in kicking Colbert off the air.

“The government was pushing to get rid of this man because he was a critic,” Carter said during an appearance on MS NOW’s The Weekend on Saturday (May 23). “And, you know, that is so alien to our values that I think most Americans — even people who are kind of neutral about it, maybe not his strong supporters — know this is not something we do. We don’t do that. We don’t shut people up because they criticize us.”

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