For years, late night television has increasingly resembled a nightly political rally disguised as comedy. Networks turned hosts into activists, monologues into partisan sermons, and audiences into ideological tribes. Now, with Stephen Colbert’s era officially ending at CBS, Byron Allen says he wants to take things in the exact opposite direction.
And honestly, a lot of viewers are probably relieved to hear it.
In a new interview with CNN’s Michael Smerconish, Allen made it clear that his revived Comics Unleashed will deliberately avoid politics altogether when it takes over Colbert’s old time slot.
“What I’m doing with Comics Unleashed, we don’t talk about politics. We don’t talk about anything that’s topical,” Allen explained. “We don’t do anything that’s racist or sexist or antisemitic or homophobic. Just be funny and don’t offend.”
That statement alone almost feels revolutionary in modern late night television.
🚨 Byron Allen stopped by to promote his new show Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, premiering May 22 at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on @CBS and let’s just say, he’s pulling up a chair at these tables not meant for us! 💼🔥 Byron breaks down how he’s making major power moves, from… pic.twitter.com/o4ouUaCKK2
— The Breakfast Club (@breakfastclubam) May 20, 2026
For the better part of a decade, Colbert transformed The Late Show from a broad mainstream entertainment program into one of the most aggressively partisan shows on television. Night after night, viewers got lengthy anti-Trump monologues, lectures about elections, and applause-line activism aimed squarely at progressive audiences.
The problem for CBS was that huge portions of the country simply tuned out.
What once functioned as shared entertainment gradually narrowed into programming aimed almost exclusively at affluent liberal viewers already predisposed to agree with the host politically. Whatever comedic edge Colbert once had increasingly became secondary to ideological messaging.
The financial consequences eventually caught up.
Stephen Colbert’s ratings hit lowest January in the shows history amid anti-Trump rants.
In the 25-54 demographic, the show pulled in 285,000 viewers- the worst in the show’s 10 year history.
The program is set to be cancelled in May after losing $40 million a year. pic.twitter.com/BvmShq3vzP
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) January 28, 2026
Last year, CBS announced it was canceling The Late Show after reportedly losing between $40 million and $50 million annually on the program. While Colbert allies immediately tried framing the move as political retaliation, CBS insisted the decision was entirely financial.
“This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,” the network said at the time.
And frankly, the numbers spoke for themselves.
Traditional late night television has been hemorrhaging viewers for years, especially among middle America audiences who increasingly feel alienated by Hollywood’s political culture. Instead of trying to appeal broadly, many hosts leaned harder into ideological activism, effectively shrinking their own audiences while preaching to the same narrow demographic every night.
Allen appears determined not to repeat that mistake.
When Smerconish asked whether viewers would inevitably search for hidden political messaging after years of Colbert’s approach, Allen brushed the idea aside completely.
“I don’t care who you vote for. I don’t care,” Allen said. “I’m here to make people laugh.”
That philosophy echoes the older model of entertainment television, where comedians generally focused on humor rather than trying to function as moral or political authorities. Allen even referenced legendary producer Norman Lear as an influence, emphasizing the idea that comedy should unite audiences instead of dividing them.
Following CBS’ cancellation of ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,’ the network announced Byron Allen’s ‘Comics Unleased’ will fill the 11:35 p.m. late-night time slot starting May 22. https://t.co/WvzJRBeka2 pic.twitter.com/GPmur72CDF
— E! News (@enews) April 6, 2026
That’s a sharp contrast to what late night became during the Trump years.
Hosts across nearly every major network increasingly treated political commentary as the core product rather than comedy itself. Over time, many viewers stopped seeing these shows as entertainment and started viewing them as predictable partisan programming with laugh tracks attached.
CBS is now betting there’s still a market for something simpler.
Beginning May 22, Comics Unleashed will air in Colbert’s former slot with back-to-back half-hour episodes, followed by Allen’s game show Funny You Should Ask. The move represents one of the clearest attempts yet by a major network to reset the tone of late night television after years of political saturation.
Whether audiences return remains to be seen. The media landscape has changed dramatically since the peak days of Letterman, Leno, and Carson. Streaming, podcasts, YouTube, and social media have fractured entertainment consumption in ways traditional networks still struggle to navigate.
But Allen may be tapping into something many executives ignored for too long: a large number of Americans are exhausted by politics invading literally everything.
Sometimes people just want to laugh for half an hour without being told who to hate, what to believe, or how to vote.
