David Letterman is sharing his thoughts on CBS replacing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert with Byron Allen‘s Comics Unleashed.
The eye network unveiled its plans for its late-night schedule when Colbert signs off in May. CBS is selling the timeslot to Allen, who would move his comedy show up one hour, starting on Friday, May 22.
“They don’t want to spend any money, so they’re going to make money,” he said. “They charge Byron Allen some reasonable price. He sells all the advertising for his Comics Unleashed, and it’ll be, I think, 90 minutes or two hours of comics talking about funny stuff.“
He added, “The show is a pretty good idea. It’s all panel. Nobody’s doing any standup, except they’re seated doing standup.”
Watch on Deadline
Comics Unleashed has been airing at 12:35 a.m., following After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson. It will now move to 11:35 p.m. for the 2026-2027 season as part of an expanded time buy agreement. The roundtable-style comedy talk show, which is hosted by Allen, has featured comedians including Sebastian Maniscalco, Tiffany Haddish, Gabriel Iglesias, Cedric the Entertainer and Nate Bargatze.
In a statement about the panel show, Allen said, “I created and launched Comics Unleashed 20 years ago so my fellow comedians could have a platform to do what we all love – make people laugh,” said Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group. “I truly appreciate CBS’ confidence in me by picking up our two-hour comedy block of Comics Unleashed and Funny You Should Ask, because the world can never have enough laughter.”
Watch Letterman in the video below.