'Comics Unleashed' Craters CBS Ratings After Stephen Colbert Exit

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show finale put CBS atop the late-night ratings charts. His replacement’s premiere plummeted them to the bottom.

When Colbert, 62, left CBS on Thursday, so too did all of his viewers. The first episode of Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed to premiere at Colbert’s previous 11:35 pm time slot drew just 995,000 viewers, according to initial Nielsen data reported by LateNighter.

By comparison, Colbert’s series finale attracted more than 6.7 million viewers via the same metric, meaning CBS saw an 85 percent downturn in viewership just one day after Colbert’s show went dark for good.

Comics Unleashed also failed to match any of its late-night peers, with Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon each earning more than 1.5 million viewers on the same night. And while Fallon aired a new episode, Kimmel’s was a rerun.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/comics-unleashed-craters-cbs-ratings-221241788.html

Boohoo

[sheshe2]

1. Ha

Ha Ha

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Way to shoot yourself in the foot CBS!😆

[Blue Owl]

2. I'll never watch it or CBS again

They've dug their hole, now they can lay inside it with a base layer of Fatback von Golfcart's liquid diarrhea.

Fuck 'em.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Serves CBS right. When does anyone ever seriously pay attention to what's supposed to be a comedy routine?

tRUMP and all of his minions don't have a funny bone in their whole body, other than when all of us on the outside looking in on them, are laughing our a&&es off

[Progressive dog]

4. Colbert was the only show

I watched on CBS. Now there are none.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Stephen Colbert's MAGA-coded replacement flops in debut: report

This makes me smile

Stephen Colbert wrapped up "The Late Show" last week after alleged pressure from President Donald Trump on his parent network, but his replacement isn't exactly filling the gap, according to new reporting.

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-05-28T05:00:18Z

https://www.rawstory.com/stephen-colbert-cbs-2676964073/

Stephen Colbert wrapped up "The Late Show" last week after alleged pressure from President Donald Trump on his parent network, but his replacement isn't exactly filling the gap, according to new reporting.

The series finale of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert drew more than 6.7 million viewers, according to reporting by The Daily Beast, which looked at Nielsen data.

The show filling Colbert's time slot on CBS, Byron Allen's "Comics Unleashed," drew only 995,000 viewers with its first episode, The Daily Beast reported. Allen is the billionaire owner of the Allen Media Group.

Late-night talk shows hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon topped more than 1.5 million viewers on the same night that Comics Unleashed debuted, according to The Daily Beast, which noted that Kimmel aired a rerun that night.

According to The Daily Beast, even Colbert's YouTube channel is nearly outperforming Allen's show. Colbert's appearance on the public access TV show "Only in Monroe" drew 928,000 views on Colbert's YouTube, which doesn't include viewers who watched via other channels and platforms.

CBS announced earlier this year that Colbert's show would end this month, citing financial reasons. However, Colbert and multiple political analysts have suggested that Trump's criticisms of Colbert were the cause.

[onenote]

6. CBS doesn't really care if it draws less than Colbert.

First, they get Colbert off the air, which kisses Trump's ass.

Second, the replacement probably costs a mere fraction to produce compared to the Colbert show, so the financial hit, if any, isn't very big.

[TheProle]

9. Byron Allen is paying CBS

CBS and Allen haven’t revealed how much Allen and his Allen Media Group pays for the 12:37 a.m. slot, and it’s unclear how much more he might pay the network to take over 11:35 p.m. as well. In traditional time buys, a company will lease a time period from a network, and then sell the advertising itself. So in effect, CBS will be making money for the hour — even though its ratings will likely go down as it loses what has been the No. 1 talk show in late night in “The Late Show.”

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/cbs-byron-allen-late-night-stephen-colbert-comics-unleashed-1236709162/

[Bengus81]

7. So now Trump can meme Byron Allen going in the dumpster too

Let's see ya do it cankles

[tanyev]

8. CBS should change their name to CTD.

Circling the drain.

[Rob H.]

10. Wow, Allen's a billionaire?

I only remember him from his bland standup back in the day.

[flvegan]

11. He has to pay to air his show because it sucks. n/t