Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed” has turned CBS late night profitable for the first time in years, with the network announcing a $15 million profit from a slot that was previously hemorrhaging money.
As theGrio has previously reported, Allen’s takeover of the CBS late-night slot came after the network canceled Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” opting instead for a time buy arrangement with Allen’s company. According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS said the time buy model will mean a $55 million positive reversal for the network.
“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. “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.”
Under the Byron Allen time buy arrangement, Allen Media Group covers all production costs and pays CBS for the right to air in the timeslot. Allen’s company then sells its own advertising, allowing it to recoup those costs while CBS collects guaranteed revenue without bearing any production risk.
“Comics Unleashed” debuted to approximately 1.1 million viewers in its new 11:35 p.m. timeslot, well below the Late Show’s final season average of 2.7 million. But the viewership gap is largely irrelevant to CBS’s bottom line under the current deal, since Allen’s company absorbs the financial risk entirely.
Allen told The Hollywood Reporter he pitched the arrangement directly to CBS. “I said, ‘Let me put that show there and let me buy the time period. I can save you $30 million-$40 million,’” Allen said. “They said, ‘Brilliant idea, let’s do it.’”
Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” officially shuttered this week, with staff posting photos of the struck set on social media.
Meanwhile, Allen’s broader media expansion continues, after closing a deal with BuzzFeed on Wednesday that ascended him to chairman and CEO of both BuzzFeed and HuffPost.
““Our vision is to build on the iconic foundation of BuzzFeed and HuffPost by expanding into free-streaming video, audio and user-generated content,” Allen said in a statement. “As of this moment, with the power of AI, BuzzFeed is officially chasing YouTube to become another premier free-streaming video service.”
