CBS fills vacant “After Midnight” time slot with “Comics Unleashed”

Syndicated show returns to CBS’ late-night lineup after test run in ’23

After CBS canceled After Midnight after two seasons, the network decided to replace it with…reruns of a syndicated show. 

CBS announced on Tuesday that it is bringing back Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed in the slot following The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, beginning the week of September 22, and the move is permanent. The program has been airing in broadcast syndication since the 2006-07 season, when it once had a primetime slot on independent WCIU’s lineup. 

“Comics Unleashed is a true passion for me, simply because this world can never have enough laughter,” said Allen, who is founder and chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group and whose Entertainment Studios handled distribution to local stations. “I created this show so that the best comedians can all come together and help bring non-stop laughter.” The program claimed 550 comedians appeared on the show over the years, including Brad Garrett, Tommy Davidson, Whitney Cummings, and others. Allen, who is a comedian himself, moderates the panel. 

Ratings for Unleashed have always been low, but that hasn’t stopped the program from staying on the air. The series was in and out of production between 2006 and 2014, when the last original episode presumably aired. Reruns of the show were sold to the CBS-owned stations (including CBS Chicago) to run after The Late Late Show with James Corden. Unleashed appeared on CBS’ schedule briefly in 2023 to fill the gap between Corden’s exit and After Midnight’s premiere, thanks to the dual Hollywood strikes. As clearance rates for the show have declined since it went out of production, the CBS deal restores Unleashed’s reach to over 200 stations, covering nearly the entire country.

A source told Variety that Allen plans to return the show to production after more than a decade off, but reruns of the program are expected to fill the back-to-back half hours, at least for now. Meanwhile, Comics Unleashed will continue in syndication, so in Chicago and a few other areas, you would get ninety minutes of Comics Unleashed a night. 

Oh joy. 

CBS canceled After Midnight two months ago after host Taylor Tomlison departed to return to stand-up comedy full-time. CBS was not expected to fill the slot with an original concept, as it was deemed too expensive at a time when late-night audiences were dwindling, so it didn’t make sense to invest in the daypart, nor was CBS going to give the hour back to affiliates for them to program, given the dearth of syndicated fare. 

But to add a perennially low-rated, obscure syndicated program with no proven track record of success shows you just how bad things are in linear TV these days. It’s just another dumb decision CBS and network TV in general is known for.