The Stephen Colbert martyrdom crowd is not going to like this story one bit.
As readers may have heard, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert aired for the last time just over a week ago on the Tiffany network. But the sordid tale of CBS, and its parent company, Paramount, putting the comedian’s show in the ejector seat and pressing the bright red button, didn’t end with the finale on Thursday, May 21.
Think of this as the tale’s sweet, sweet coda, and leftists who continue to suffer from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) will despise it.. Buckle up!
So, CBS-Paramount might be deriving some well-deserved satisfaction right about now, as my colleague at sister site PJ Media, Matt Margolis, wrote earlier on Saturday in his piece, “CBS Torches Stephen Colbert After His Exit”:
Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed officially took over CBS’s 11:35 p.m. late-night slot on Friday, May 22, under a new “time buy” deal with the network. Under the arrangement, Allen Media Group pays CBS for the time period, handles all production costs itself, and controls the advertising inventory. This means that CBS doesn’t have to spend a dime.
That’s a pretty sharp contrast from what Colbert cost it.
CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show back in July 2025, citing financial reasons. The network said the program was hemorrhaging roughly $40 million a year. At the time, some on the left insisted that the move was political. In their minds, CBS, an anti-Trump network, was doing President Donald Trump a favor by getting rid of one of his critics.
But CBS (again) demolished that narrative.
“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,” the spokesperson said, calling it “a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost prohibitive to continue.”
Let that sink in, readers. CBS ran an experiment – in an industry that is loathe to try new things that could cost/lose them money – instead of keeping Colbert for one more contract. That has to hurt, for the former late night host and his apologists/acolytes, including the terminally wrong Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT).
Read More: Chris Murphy Tries to Use AI Clip of Trump on Colbert’s Exit to Rant About Censorship, Misses the Point
The Long Farewell to Stephen Colbert Is Finally Over; Now We Can Laugh at the Grave Mourning of His Loss
Not only isn’t the network bleeding money now that he’s off the air, but they are already making money. Essentially, CBS is paying nothing to produce the new programs, and profiting! That ain’t easy to do.
There’s also this point to tie up with a bow. This result has to be cathartic for Paramount, which has also taken a barrage of fire from leftists over the CBS News division changes, including the hiring of new boss, Bari Weiss.
Ironically, Colbert used to be kind of all right as a talk show host. I praised his skills as an interviewer once (at another publication), but he went to the Dark Side of progressive comedy. Then Greg Gutfeld and his Fox News “Gutfeld!” started beating the blazes out of all of the broadcast talk shows–in 2021. What can you do, really?
I am sure I’m not alone in recalling the soft-touch treatment former President Joe Biden got on the Colbert non-comedy show in 2020.
Softball City: The Bidens Show up to Softball Interview with Colbert, and It Goes About How You’d Expect
So, what about Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed? If you’re unfamiliar with it, that’s probably because it’s syndicated, and until recently, has aired late at night.
And it’s been following “Colbert” on CBS since Sept. 2025, according to this trailer:
The concept, which even a child could pick up from the video, is pretty basic: Allen sits down in a town hall set-up, with four stand-up comics, for an hour. That’s it. But Unleashed is not a new show. It began airing in 2006.
I see it while clicking through channels on over-the-air TV in my home. What’s my take on Allen’s program? It’s funny stuff, but not anything spectacular. Like any comedy-based show, it depends on who the guests are.
And as for the demise of late night comedy – and broadcast TV as a whiole – as a profitable entertainment vehicle, it is a sad thing for this Gen Xer to witness. It was probably inevitable, though.
That appears to be what media mogul Allen himself is betting on, by the way. When he bought BuzzfFeed recently he told Variety he wanted to make it into a competitor to YouTube in the “premier free-streaming video” space. Stay tuned, viewers, er, readers.
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